Two DNFs for Pastor Maldonado and a best finish of 11th for teammate Valtteri Bottas are not exactly what Williams F1 Team had in mind ahead of the 2013 Formula 1 season.
Despite the new exhaust layout adopted by the team ahead of the season opener in Australia not helping matters, Williams’ problems seem to run deeper than a wrong direction from the technical department.
Whilst other long standing teams, Ferrari and McLaren for example, have adapted to the perpetually changing world of F1, Williams it seems, remains stuck in a difficult place where the driver drives and doesn’t ask questions; the engineers make the car go faster and management should be small and take care of itself. In political terms then, the Grove based team is the US Republican party.
The lack of success then puts Williams in a place far, far away from where it was two or three decades ago when it was fighting for championships and despite all of the Formula 1 community having nothing but the highest respect for Sir Frank Williams, the lack of success lies firmly at his feet.
In short, Sir Frank is from an era where men smoked fags and world champions were called Alan. Nowadays, Formula 1 is a very different animal.
And despite the Williams team’s philosophy of having Sir Frank’s daughter as his deputy, Adam Burns as chief executive officer, the engineering and management side remains clearly divided. Ask the South American trio of former Williams’ drivers, Rubens Barrichello, Bruno Senna and F1’s favourite Colombian, Juan Pablo Montoya.
The driver’s job still remains to get in the car, drive it and go home. It lies at the feet of the engineers to develop the car. It’s what their paid to do. At other teams, the driver is an integral player as it’s his duty as much as the engineer’s to develop the car. These teams nurture their drivers; ask Jenson Button… or Kimi Raikkonen… or Eric Boullier.
The division between management and engineering is quite visible. Mark Gillan was appointed ‘chief operations engineer’ last year, but when it became evident over the season that it was a junior technical director role, it was done away with and Gillan left at the end of the year to ‘spend more time with his family.’ Apparently.
Then there are the continual restructures on both the technical and managerial sides of things, through which some very capable people – Adam Parr and Sam Michael to note a few – have passed. Michael seems to be thriving in his new McLaren surroundings, so he obviously isn’t a bad engineer.
Therefore it begs the question as to whether the Williams management actually listened to him, or went their own way and produced some extremely underwhelming racing cars.
In short, and this is said with the utmost of respect, maybe Sir Frank’s time at the helm of Team Willy is up. His contemporaries, Martin Whitmarsh, Stefano Domenicali and Christian Horner are all in middle age, not old age; for example, Sir Frank is 71.
And that’s just the problem. As long as Sir Frank remains at the helm, then the team will struggle. Despite having a success rate as good as any front running team, Williams’ antiquated outlook on drivers, engineers and management will render them a relic in a brave new world.
Despite the new exhaust layout adopted by the team ahead of the season opener in Australia not helping matters, Williams’ problems seem to run deeper than a wrong direction from the technical department.
Whilst other long standing teams, Ferrari and McLaren for example, have adapted to the perpetually changing world of F1, Williams it seems, remains stuck in a difficult place where the driver drives and doesn’t ask questions; the engineers make the car go faster and management should be small and take care of itself. In political terms then, the Grove based team is the US Republican party.
The lack of success then puts Williams in a place far, far away from where it was two or three decades ago when it was fighting for championships and despite all of the Formula 1 community having nothing but the highest respect for Sir Frank Williams, the lack of success lies firmly at his feet.
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| Sir Frank Williams and Alan Jones at the 1980 French Grand Prix. (Photo: WRi2) |
In short, Sir Frank is from an era where men smoked fags and world champions were called Alan. Nowadays, Formula 1 is a very different animal.
And despite the Williams team’s philosophy of having Sir Frank’s daughter as his deputy, Adam Burns as chief executive officer, the engineering and management side remains clearly divided. Ask the South American trio of former Williams’ drivers, Rubens Barrichello, Bruno Senna and F1’s favourite Colombian, Juan Pablo Montoya.
The driver’s job still remains to get in the car, drive it and go home. It lies at the feet of the engineers to develop the car. It’s what their paid to do. At other teams, the driver is an integral player as it’s his duty as much as the engineer’s to develop the car. These teams nurture their drivers; ask Jenson Button… or Kimi Raikkonen… or Eric Boullier.
The division between management and engineering is quite visible. Mark Gillan was appointed ‘chief operations engineer’ last year, but when it became evident over the season that it was a junior technical director role, it was done away with and Gillan left at the end of the year to ‘spend more time with his family.’ Apparently.
Then there are the continual restructures on both the technical and managerial sides of things, through which some very capable people – Adam Parr and Sam Michael to note a few – have passed. Michael seems to be thriving in his new McLaren surroundings, so he obviously isn’t a bad engineer.
Therefore it begs the question as to whether the Williams management actually listened to him, or went their own way and produced some extremely underwhelming racing cars.
In short, and this is said with the utmost of respect, maybe Sir Frank’s time at the helm of Team Willy is up. His contemporaries, Martin Whitmarsh, Stefano Domenicali and Christian Horner are all in middle age, not old age; for example, Sir Frank is 71.
And that’s just the problem. As long as Sir Frank remains at the helm, then the team will struggle. Despite having a success rate as good as any front running team, Williams’ antiquated outlook on drivers, engineers and management will render them a relic in a brave new world.