Williams FW33 Launch

[Ardius]

Well yeah, you don't find much time by copying your rivals...playing catch-up is what Williams have been doing for a very long time. They used to be the master innovators..its about time they got back to beating the rest rather than following them.
And thats my point with the Renault exhaust too...with any "innovation". You don't create such designs by thinking conservatively. So Sam is perfectly right to be highlighting their need to search for an innovation. This is exactly what Rubens said at the beginning of the year - that he told the team to go more radical and to stop going for safe designs.

Its not like they create and use such designs knowing they are slower but use them anyway just because they are innovative. Its because they actually believe its an effective design. Whether they are right or wrong we will see at Melbourne.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Then he could probably do with presenting himself better. Talk about how it was time to go back to taking chances, about how Barrichello was pushing them towards radical designs. Don't just say "We knew we wanted to be different" because it can easily be interpreted any number of ways, most of which do not reflect well upon the team.

 

[Hun200kmh]

I need to see that car on track to understand if I like the livery. And even the car itself I find it hard to judge, the pictures are too dark.

That said, I wish Williams and, especially Rubens (guessing this may be his last year) a great 2011 season. Would love and I mean LOVE to see a Williams win a GP again.


PS - If the Wood Brothers' "21" won at Daytona (last win there was in 1976 or so I was told) ... why not?

 

[PeterJB]

Not as Rothmansy as I had hoped, but still an improvement on the previous livery. 👍

 

[Northstar]

Must say this is shaping up to be a great looking grid paint scheme wise.👍

 

[Sting]

I had hoped they would go for the Rothmans look and by god they didnt disappoint! GORGEOUS!

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

I need to see that car on track to understand if I like the livery. And even the car itself I find it hard to judge, the pictures are too dark.

That said, I wish Williams and, especially Rubens (guessing this may be his last year) a great 2011 season. Would love and I mean LOVE to see a Williams win a GP again.


PS - If the Wood Brothers' "21" won at Daytona (last win there was in 1976 or so I was told) ... why not?

Really, do you think it'll be Rubinho's last season? I don't see why unless he loses motivation, but I think he's proven he still has the pace and I think any midfield team would bite their arm off to have him. In contrast to Coulthard in his final season, he really was very poor and off the pace completely - it was definitely the right time to retire. I haven't seen any of the same indications from Rubens yet though.

 

[Ardius]

I need to see that car on track to understand if I like the livery. And even the car itself I find it hard to judge, the pictures are too dark.

That said, I wish Williams and, especially Rubens (guessing this may be his last year) a great 2011 season. Would love and I mean LOVE to see a Williams win a GP again.


PS - If the Wood Brothers' "21" won at Daytona (last win there was in 1976 or so I was told) ... why not?

Here you go:

I agree that I would love to see Williams on top again and especially Rubens. Last season? I doubt it unless he really loses his touch this season. He is still beating good drivers and still proving to be a valuable asset to team and car development, he will continue to drive at Williams as long as he keeps up with his teammates and helps drive them to success.
I actually quite easily see Rubens continuing at Williams for a good while and if not he would be gladly taken by another midfielder or one of the new teams. Unfortunately his only shot at a WDC now is to try and help a team towards one as the top teams prefer younger drivers. But he has always been motivated in F1, so I don't see him having a problem being stuck in midfield teams.

I'd reckon Rubens is safe at Williams for another year or two at least. Even if backmarker teams are only an option, Rubens is quite clearly the perfect replacement driver if a top driver was injured again like Kubica or Massa (experienced, reliable, still very fast and excellent at developing cars and setups).

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I've long thought Rubens would be the perfect driver for a team like Williams, and I've often wondered why Williams didn't make a play for his services the moment he left Ferrari. For some reason, I've always had the feeling that Barrichello and Frank Williams would get along famously. I think they probably would have won another race much sooner with Barrichello spearheading the team.

 

[tankuroded]

Let I compare with this:

So is Williams competing with Renault, to revive an old (tobacco) livery? 💡

 

[RTSolvalou]

The gold will be more prominent in natural light, but the livery as a whole is giving me Colgate triple-stripe vibes.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

There's no gold in that livery. It's primarily blue and white, with streaks of red and silver.

And another little thing that bugs me: the front wing uprights are white, but the part of the nose where they connect is blue surrounded by white. It should all be white in there.

 

[Hun200kmh]

@ Ardius - Thanks for the pic


@ interludes - Yes, there's something not quite right with the livery at the front, I hope they correct that (I'm talking aesthetics only). Everything else makes it a beauty, especially from the side. And I think it was wise of them to change gold for silver. I have many doubts about the legality of Renault's current livery, and I wonder - after the Ferrari-Marlboro bar code "case" - how long it will take for some group tocome publicly saying that such a livery makes us think of JPS cigarettes and to consider buying a pack!


EDIT

@ Shaggy and Ardius - All good things must come to an end. I know Rubens still loves his job after all these years, and I know he is still one of the best out there in every weekend. And I like the guy so I'm not rooting for him to be kicked out of F1. But I'd like him to leave on his own and not because there's no room for him anymore, or because he is slowly losing pace. Besides, I don't get many of F1 veterans. If I was one of them I'd like to leave while I have time, age, health, pace and "motorsports goodwill" in me enough to enter and win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

 

[Ardius]

Rubens still has many years ahead of him to win the Le Mans 24 hours, he isn't actually that old. Consider that Nigel Mansell competed at Le Mans only last year and he retired at an older age than Barrichello is now.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Mansell should have competed at Le Mans YEARS ago (if he really wanted to add such a win to his impressive CV). Now, he will never be there in a "possible-winner" position.

OT - This reminded me Mario Andretti, a driver I feel very much for. He tried, and tried, and tried, from the 60's and until a very old age but victory eluded him always. Anyway, even his last attempt (2000, 60 years old, in a works Panoz - finishing 16th) was a much more serious one than the one we saw by the Mansells last year.

 

[RTSolvalou]

LRGP won't have any issues with their livery, it's too dissimilar from the JPS one, the red endplates which some do not like would happen to be the main argument winning factor, of which the JPS was black with a gold perimeter, a lower count of gold pinstriping overall on the R31 is also worth something.
We could say that HRT's 2010 livery encourages suicide but it's a little late for that.

 

[Ardius]

Mansell should have competed at Le Mans YEARS ago (if he really wanted to add such a win to his impressive CV). Now, he will never be there in a "possible-winner" position.

OT - This reminded me Mario Andretti, a driver I feel very much for. He tried, and tried, and tried, from the 60's and until a very old age but victory eluded him always. Anyway, even his last attempt (2000, 60 years old, in a works Panoz - finishing 16th) was a much more serious one than the one we saw by the Mansells last year.

True, but I think it would be difficult for Rubens to outright win Le Mans anyway because the top LMP1 teams are going to go for (again) mostly younger drivers or drivers who have been in sportscars for a long time. I just can't see Audi or Peugeot going for him over their current line-ups. Maybe a team like Prodrive-Aston Martin or someone who is not at the top yet is possible.
I don't know if Rubens is really passionate about sportscars anyway, he might end up going to Indycar after F1.

 

[F1 fan]

Not really liking the discussion of Rubens retiring. He is still doing a great job, the team love him and despite the fact that Nico Hulkenberg's stock is currently very high, he managed to score double the points. Considering the fact that Nico swept all before him in junior categories and was being bigged up as the new Lewis Hamilton. Fair enough, it was his rookie season and he is tremendously talented, but Rubens walked all over him in terms of consistency.

While I think Hulkenberg deserved to stay, Williams needed cash and they kept the right person. Someone had to go and they picked the right person to retain. If anyone can bring Williams back to the top, it's Barrichello.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Not really liking the discussion of Rubens retiring.

The man might have raced for longer than anyone else in the sport, but he can't race forever.

 

[Robin]

If that's meant to be a retro livery (i.e. Rothmans) clearly someone at Williams are blind because it looks nothing like it, I seriously couldn't even guess that it was meant to be Rothmans esque. Looks like the BMW era cars with a few extra stripes.

 

[Ardius]

^Well, its a better tribute than the JPS Renault...

Not really liking the discussion of Rubens retiring.

Why? Its not a negative discussion, its quite natural considering his age...are you in denial about his inevitable retirement?

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I didn't think it looked much like the Rothman's livery either, that was until I saw this:

Now I get it.

 

[Robin]

^Well, its a better tribute than the JPS Renault...

In my opinion the Renualt is the best homage and the best looking car on the grid, if you minus those horrid Total end plates. Williams need to widen the stripes and make them very gold and red, not faded like they are at the moment. Also the nose cone should be totally blue (not with a white gap between the sides and top).

 

[Ardius]

No way, fat golden stripes? It looks terrible before you even get to the red Total bits. Not to mention the H-uge Lotus logo. Absolutely rediculous. Its almost like Bahar himself designed it, with crayons.

The Williams is a little more under-stated, which is far more stylish in my opinion. I agree that the nose could be improved, but the stripes are fine - it doesn't need to copy the old livery and nor should it. After all, Rothmans isn't actually sponsoring them, so they have a little more freedom to style it better..which it has been.

 

[F1 fan]

The man might have raced for longer than anyone else in the sport, but he can't race forever.

He easily has a few more years in him. I know he can't race forever, but he's still deserving of a place in Formula one and he would give at least half the grid a run for their money if they were teammates in equal cars. He's not the oldest man in F1 either. This reminds me of Lewis Hamilton saying he thought Webber would retire... I believe he said that in Australia 2010. What reason did he have for believing this?

Why? Its not a negative discussion, its quite natural considering his age...are you in denial about his inevitable retirement?

No, I'm not in denial. I know he's heading towards the end of his career but he's still in good form and is in great physical shape. It's not how old you are on paper, it's still to do with ability. If he still has motivation, is performing well and retains his fitness and speed, then it really shouldn't matter what age he is on paper. I can guarantee that he is in better physical shape than any of us here on gtplanet.

 

[Ardius]

He will eventually retire though, the older he gets, the more likely it becomes it will be the next year. Obviously he is in better physical shape than anyone here, so what? The point is can he continue to keep up with younger and younger drivers? He can at the moment, but not forever. No one is saying they think Rubens should retire this year or next year, we are simply discussing what will happen when he does eventually retire nor are they saying he isn't good enough anymore.
So again, why is it negative to discuss an event which is inevitably going to happen?

 

[F1 fan]

He will eventually retire though, the older he gets, the more likely it becomes it will be the next year. Obviously he is in better physical shape than anyone here, so what? The point is can he continue to keep up with younger and younger drivers? He can at the moment, but not forever. No one is saying they think Rubens should retire this year or next year, we are simply discussing what will happen when he does eventually retire nor are they saying he isn't good enough anymore.
So again, why is it negative to discuss an event which is inevitably going to happen?

I just find it disrespectful to be speculating on his retirement while he still has time on the clock... Let's not forget that Schumi is older than Rubens. Granted, he's probably in better shape... The point I was trying to make is that while Rubens can still keep up with the younger generation, then it is a bit disrespectful to speculate on his retirement. He hasn't lost anything... yet.

 

[Ardius]

I just find it disrespectful to be speculating on his retirement while he still has time on the clock... Let's not forget that Schumi is older than Rubens. Granted, he's probably in better shape... The point I was trying to make is that while Rubens can still keep up with the younger generation, then it is a bit disrespectful to speculate on his retirement. He hasn't lost anything... yet.

We're going in circles here. Why is it disrespectful? What are we not respecting? Because we have already stated many times that none of us think that Rubens has lost speed or should retire. Why should we only discuss his retirement after its happened?

 

[F1 fan]

We're going in circles here. Why is it disrespectful? What are we not respecting? Because we have already stated many times that none of us think that Rubens has lost speed or should retire. Why should we only discuss his retirement after its happened?

I too get the impression that we're going in circles here. I just think it's jumping the gun a bit. Rubens clearly feels he has more to offer, so speculating on when he may retire (IMO) just seems a bit rude. Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one... Or keep going in circles.

Williams aren't going to be turned back into winners that easily, but if that's Ruben's plan, you can bet he wants to win William's next race for himself. If he starts winning again, then I doubt he'll want to retire.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Sam Michael and Jon Tomlinson out, Mike Coughlan in.