Williams FW33 Launch

[Ardius]

Wow, they actually did it. Its been a few years since people started suggesting that, and its been quite surprising that Frank has stuck with Sam for so long - Frank used to be quite ruthless.

While this won't be too good for the short term, I remain ever hopeful Williams find some way back to the top.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Well, they're not going with immediate effect. They'll leave at the end of the year. Hopefully the party line of "our car will have an aggressive design" will go with Michael.

I've heard Tomlinson is off to Virgin, whilst Michael will be joining Fernandes. But I can't confirm it.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Coughlan's been out of F1 for three years, so he'll need some time to bed in.

I thought Sam Michael was a good engineer, but clearly top-level management doesn't suit him. The team has lacked aero direction since Antonia Terzi was scapegoated over the narwhal-nosed FW26.

If Michael does end up at Lotus, it'll be interesting to see how he gels with Gascoyne. Tony Fernandes is a shrewd man, and understands that Gascoyne is his single greatest asset at this time.

 

[Ardius]

Well Michael would have worked under Gascoyne at Jordan surely? So that makes sense.

Coughlan is an excellent addition, but I'd like to see them take on Pat Symonds when his ban is lifted.

I do think though that Williams are in need of "aggressive" design, the very reason they have not found much success recently is because they have been far too conservative with their designs. It gave them reliable, points scoring cars but this shouldn't be what Williams is about.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Coughlan is an excellent addition, but I'd like to see them take on Pat Symonds when his ban is lifted.

Symonds is consulting for Virgin at the moment. He's currently conducting a full review as to how the team got to the point where they've extracted everything they can out of the MVR-02 and they're still no further ahead than where they were last year. They have a major chassis upgrade coming for Turkey - nose, wings, floor and rear assembly - but they're already considering doing wind tunnel work if they have to.

 

[Ardius]

I know he is consulting for Virgin, so what?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

So it's entirely possible he'll stay there once his ban expires. Especially if his consultancy starts getting Virgin some results.

 

[Ardius]

True, but he can also move to Williams, depends who makes the highest bid. I doubt any progress Virgin makes will be just down to Symonds, after all he can only advise them, he can't actually do any work for them.