Williams F1 have finally launched the FW35 at the Barcelona test today. I posted launch videos of all of the other 11 teams earlier in the month, so it wouldn’t be fair to exclude Williams. Check it out.
Tag Archives: Williams
|Weekend| Simming it up!
During the off-season, it’s always important to find someway to sharpen your racing skills for when the spring time returns. So over the weekend, I played some RFactor on a friend’s computer.
In my opinion, quality simulation games are a good way to improve your mental programming while racing on a budget.
We spent the afternoon practicing with classic Formula 1 cars, on tracks that we’d never driven before. It gave us some time to re-learn some of our old skills, and also create a list of new habits to start working on for the upcoming season.
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Another #F1 Team Works (Videos) Williams
Check out this BBC Interview of Rubens Barrichello’s interview on his #F1 career while you can
Normally these BBCs interviews go down pretty quick. Despite a terrible car, nearly zero points, and a contract with Williams F1 running out, Rubens is still a sunny light in the darkest storm.
This man is a legend, and I’m wishing him the best in 2012.
Since when was Rubens on Top Gear?!
Shows how much I’ve been paying attention to both Rubens and Top Gear lately…
Overtaking in Formula 1 (Video)
Prior to this year, one of the classic complaints in Formula 1 was that there was so little overtaking during the races.
One thing that people traditionally don’t recognize when discussing F1 cars, is how aerodynamically sensitive the car is to the turbulence to the car in front of it. When attempting to slipstream and overtake, the chasing car could be thrown into such instability that it made it difficult for the driver to have the momentum to properly make the move.
Another thing that people normally don’t speak about is how short the braking distances are in a Formula 1 car. Thinking about it though, it makes sense. Lightweight car + large brakes = short braking distances. When you don’t have a lot of time to get next to the car to make a move, it makes it incredibly challenging to disrupt the rhythm of the car in front.
Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell created a video a few years ago, which explained how challenging overtaking in an F1 can be. Take a view, and hopefully you will gain a better understanding in how challenging passing can be in one of the top levels of motorsport.
That is…before DRS was invented.
Sam Michael, Williams F1 Technical Director- Falling on your sword
With the initial failures of the Williams FW33, Sam Michael took the brunt of the blame for the reason that the radical designs on the car were unsuccessful. Michael turned in his resignation for the end of the 2011 year.
He is one of the youngest technical directors in the sport, however I don’t think that has anything to do with Williams’ current trouble. I wanted to feature a video about him and his role at Williams, so people understand the challenges that a technical director of a racing team has to manage.
Michael may have been thrown under the bus by Williams F1, but that does not mean that he is not a total capable engineer.
Every Soccer Mom Needs This: Renault Espace F1
I do everything fast and efficiently. Only one brush stroke for my teeth. Only wash half my face. Put only one sock on. Never lock doors. Sleep in work clothes. Never change underwear. Taught my dog to feed itself. Eat meat raw. Park wherever the hell I please. Don’t dot my i’s. Don’t cross my t’s. Never finish sentenc…
I complain often, though, and make sure people know it. My biggest gripe in life is grocery shopping. Hate it. It takes forever, I can never find what I want, and I never leave with what I shopped for (curse you magazine racks…).
BUT! I think I’ve finally found something that will help alleviate the burden… Enter the Renault Espace F1. Yes, the Espace, normally a comfortable, practical, and somewhat reliable French family van. The van was created in partnership with Matra Automobiles, the same group that helped Jackie Stewart to a Formula 1 World Championship in 1969 with a Ford-Cosworth engine and Ken Tyrell running the team. Launched in 1984, the Espace was one of pioneers of the MPV, or multi-purpose vehicle.
This mental version though, is based on the 2nd generation Espace. It features a 3.5L Williams-Renault championship winning Formula 1 V10 (!) engine, making around 800hp. The engine, naturally, is in the back of the car, and is surrounded by a carbon fiber chassis. And don’t worry, the thing will stop. It has the F1 brakes as well. It seems to be just what I need to make the trip to the corner deli almost worth it. I can finally run to the store as fast as I live my life!
Milk and cereal anyone?
Lunchtime Video: Jackie Stewart drives ’89 Williams F1 car. (+Bonus Video)
We could listen to Jackie Stewart talk about driving all day. (Click below for a Bonus Video)
2010 F1 Summary- Just to catch you up.
As the first official race weekend of the 2011 Formula 1 season starts tomorrow. We at the “Starting Grid” thought it proper to provide you with a quick summary of what happened in 2010.
2011 F1 Pre-Season Review: The Midfielders
Continuing my last post from yesterday on the Top 4 teams in the 2011 Preseason, we’ll now take a look at the so called “midfielders”. These are the teams just within a breath of the top, but just don’t have the extra gumption to take them over the hump… yet. Many of the teams have brought new creations and inventions along with rethought ideas from the past. We’ll take a look at the Lotus Renault, Williams, Sauber Ferrari, Force India, and Scuderia Toro Rosso in today’s review.
Lotus Renault have been busy in the off-season, starting with the dispute in the naming of the team itself. I won’t go into much detail because it will make me want to rip my own head off, but Team Lotus and Lotus Renault are going to court for rights to the Lotus name in Formula 1. Stupid. I know. In any case, the Lotus Renault R31 chassis has gone through quite the face-lift from its predecessor. The car features the nostalgic black and gold of old from the John Player Special days that Mario Andretti and Ayrton Senna made famous. The chassis itself has a few tricks up it’s sleeve though, with what looks to be a front exit exhaust channeling exhaust air from the front of the car all the way back to the rear diffuser. The test times have not yet shown how effective the blown air has been, but again, its only testing and we’re not even sure the team will actually run the exhaust in this configuration for the races.
Robert Kubica’s recent rally crash has hampered the teams chances of scoring some good points this year, but Renault have gone the route of outsourcing a team leader in Nick Heidfeld, Kubica’s old teammate at BMW Sauber. Heidfeld often ran well against Kubica in equal equipment so it will be intriguing to see what he can do to help the team forward. We here at SG all wish Bob a speedy recovery.
Lotus Renault R31
The Williams team look to be on a bit of a resurrection with Rubens Barrichello leading the team to a nice hefty haul of points last year. The departure of Nico Hulkenburg in exchange for Pastor Maldonado wasn’t a big shocker but shows a sign of the times and how motorsport nowadays seems to be run mostly by money and less on merit. In any case, the team looks to shake things up at the front with a deceptive rear suspension package that features a uniquely tiny gearbox on their FW33 challenger. The beam wing and rear suspension are joined together while the driveshafts take a sharp angle back up to the wheels. It’s a bit of a risk but it looks to be working well enough with the relative pace the team have shown this pre-season. The packaging of the rear end looks to be the smallest of all the teams with a definite emphasis on regaining that everlonging downforce at the happy end of the car. Their KERS on the other hand has been a bit rough, often causing the team delays during running and cutting short their precious track time. Despite the issues, Williams are looking good and going into the season, are my favorite of the midfielders. Aside from…
Williams FW33
…Sauber Ferrari. The team were lucky enough to acquire BMW’s windtunnel and CFD centers along with the know how of James Key. The team were quite unlucky last year though as the C29 chassis was not designed around the Ferrari engine they ran in 2010 but was meant for the BMW powerplant that the C28 had. By the end of the year, the team had figured out how to get some reliability out of the car and now start fresh with the C30 and two young, aggressive drivers. Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, whose entry was made via the departure of Pedro De La Rosa, will be sure to dazzle as they use their rambunctiousness and kamikaze (no racial Kamui…) style attacks on the front pack. The C30 chassis doesn’t feature a mass of technical highlights or outstanding ideas, but similar to the Ferrari 150* and Force India, the team looks to be using clean, simple aero ideas for their car. It does feature a low blown exhaust and Ferrari’s tightly packaged rear end (giggle) and KERS. Key’s technical vision should help the team forward and looks to have done so in testing, with Perez having one of the fastest laps of the pre-season test in Barcelona. Time will tell, but I like where the team is headed. It doesn’t hurt that the car is easy on the eyes, too.
Sauber Ferrari C30
Force India has done a bit of driver shuffling as well. With what was arguably the best remaining spot not really left open for a driver in the balance, the team decided to release Vitantonio Liuzzi to make way for the DTM champion Paul di Resta, cousin to IndyCar champeen, Dario Franchitti. The FI VJM04 looks to be an easy evolution of last year’s car but has been a been disappointing so far. I had high hopes that the team would make another step forward as they had been trending in the past few years, but the loss of key technical personnel has hampered those hopes. Undercut sidepods, a recurring theme this year, are featured on the VJM04, along with a hideous looking nose. Yay. They’ve also taken the Mercedes W01′s airbox inlet and slapped it on, using the blade style roll hoop to separate the area. Their only saving grace looks to be Di Resta’s speed. I believe him to be faster than Sutil and am looking forward to seeing the progress he makes this year in what may be a dog of a car. Another positive? Mercedes power and KERS technology. Should help? Maybe? Ehh…
Force India VJM04
And finally, Scuderia Toro Rosso. Ah, STR. Having brought up the likes of Liuzzi, Speed, Vettel, and… well that’s about it really isn’t it? No matter, the team’s STR6 chassis looks to be pretty good as it features a whole raft of new details and interesting bits (where you at Force India?). A double floor, huge front wing, complex rear diffuser, low blown exhaust… seems to have all the makings of a good car. I like the bold direction the team have decided to take. The double floor looks to be a pretty good idea. Essentially the car has extremely raised side pods that allow air coming from the front of the car over the floor in the midsection directly to the rear diffuser and beam wing. The high pressure air over the top of the floor and low pressure underneath should create a nice hefty amount of downforce that the team may have been missing, and it shows in their pace during testing. Jaime Alguersuari and Sebestian Buemi are in the drivers seats for now, but both only have a half year contract signed with the team. With Daniel Ricciardo right behind, if either driver fails to produce, they can expect to be gone sooner rather than later. The car looks stunning, but will the teams results follow suit?
Scuderia Toro Rosso STR6
Force India’s definitely got their work cut out for them. The other four teams have looked pretty good in testing and have made rather large strides forward. They’ll have Team Lotus breathing down their necks with Virgin and HRT possibly following suit (maybe not HRT so much, but they are surprising with their car this year…). We’ll take a look at the noobs in the next installment.
