Newey should do a "Football Manager" challenge and rejoin Williams for a back-to-front effort

3:16 - It's insane how small is the gap from first to last, I remember the old 107% rule in the not so old days. Newer fans think the gap is big today, they never saw the time when it was usual for the entire field to be lapped at least one time, except for the 2 first places. Some cars where lapped 3, 4 even more times. Today 1% off the pace is huge.

Something worth noting is that Williams also did well last year because the Haas and Alfa were DREADFUL and the alpha tauri was only good past summer break. So the 7th place they earned was inflated for more than just a peaky car.

Timing 10/10

I think this shows why you need points further down, otherwise teams are incentivised to build a car that works really well at a few tracks than one that is decent everywhere. Because 1 10th place is better in the championship than 20 11th's

I think Williams is a bit of a dark horse and Albon consistently under-rated given that their factory infrastructure is so far out of date (due to lack of investment historically) they are consistently overachieving, and due entirely to Albon. Congratulations to Albon and good luck Williams. Imagine if Adrian returned on an advisory capacity (not that I think he will).

I'm really excited to see how this long term reboot for Williams and Alex develops, and I think James Vowels is cooking a meal for us in 2026! (I think they are a top 4 team challenging for podiums in 2026) Will see how this ages xD

Being more consistant is the right way to go... for a top team. It's completely the wrong way to go for a lower midfield team. The advantage to a tempremental peaky car is that it has its really good days which then set the team up for the following season. With a consistant car you're guaranteed to be around the same level every race, and if that level is 13th place then you're stuck there with no hope of "the next track will suit us better".

If only F1 teams were held to the same “competitive” standard they seem to demand of Andretti: be as competitive as Redbull, Mercedes, and Ferrari or GTFO.

Newy should join Williams as a challenge... That would be fun to see

For some reason, I have a soft spot for Williams. Perhaps it was the late Frank's personality or its innovative origin and early 2000s record. But there is something nice about them. Last year, Albon brought a lot of excitement to the races and it was kind of a neat story. Hopefully, the consistent approach is the way to go and by 2026 we can have a competitive Williams again!

Even with such a volatile driver market, Albon’s best option would’ve been Alpine if a seat became available. Might as well stick where you’re loved and wait for a better opportunity

Albon staying at Williams with a multi year deal is perfect for more stability. They need an experienced driver alongside, I think Bottas or Occon would be a perfect fit.

Lots of teams with upgrades for Imola. Let's all hope for some surprises and a more mixed up grid when the race concludes on Sunday.

You have Red Bull, Ferrari, MB, McLaren, and Aston. All of them are fighting for the top 10 positions. Then when one of them mess up an RB takes the position. Not much you can really do when there are 6 teams that are considerably quicker.

The issue they have by making it a more all-round car is that they lose their advantage in the straight. However it is nice to see that they are focusing on the entire season now

Very informative (again). Keep up the good work!

Yeah, seems to me that Vowles is getting the engineers used to working on a proper "complete" car design, rather than a "peaky" one, while he strives to get them the tools they need to ultimately produce one. Then once he has got what they need, they are ready to exploit it.

“20 years behind” and “using excel for car parts” kinda sums up Williams being where they are.

Max, Lando, Charles, Albono....all young drivers staying with their teams long term. Seems team fit is big on the younger drivers.

This move is more interesting in the red bull seat situation. Sainz might have a chance now.

Thanks for covering this. F1 is a constructor's championship, the spec race fanbois will never understand that there are multiple battles up and down the grid based on the work from engineers doing actual engineering and not a bunch of tuners with engineering degrees.

They got the wheel barrow handles back!

There should be a spending allowance clause granted to teams on case by case basis if they can show legit evidence of an infrastructure deficiency to the avg. team. Other wise the spending cap is useless and still hurts lower teams that don’t have the same building infrastructure as larger teams.

2023 Williams gave me hope

good informative article

They should do one race a year where the first place driver drives the last place car and vice verse just to see what happens

2:30 5 out of 11 is NOT generally

RIP to the Williams nascar 😢

God, I hope Newey joins Williams.

Newey to Williams

TLDR jack of all trades is master of none.

whenever they are in points finish contention K-mag happen

They ruined their straight line speed which was their strongest point.

I hope they invest smartly so they can be at least a good midfield team again.

Its about driver using cars tyre's smart at All tracks. . you gotta believe and invest

It's interesting that 2 of the 3 biggest players in this silly season (Alonso and Albon) chose to stick with their teams. I wonder if I'm really going to see the amount of changes I thought we would see this year

Logan skews the competitive of last year’s car. It was much better overall than it seemed. If they had two Albons, they could have been competing with Alpine. This year, they’re both at the back because Albon can’t do anything with it.

McLaren has shown what is needed by a customer team running a Mercedes power unit to create a fast “good” car that can podium and now win the odd race for now. Aston did this last year to a lesser extent but only at the beginning of the 2023 season and with no wins. Makes one wonder about the mass and CG of the Mercedes power unit and its influence on car balance with varying fuel load. And how it can be aerodynamically packaged. The redesigned Honda unit that powered Max to his 2021 championship transitioned so nicely into the new downforce generation car. All the experts continually discuss how minor variations severely impact downforce cars. Regardless Williams yardstick for success is both McLaren and Aston. Mercedes shouldn’t get snubbed either because they have faired infinitely better than Williams. But they are not a customer team.

F1 games have taught me, speed maxing and making a straight line demon is better for getting results

They need to dig out the old Newey drawings!

Their main issue is that they're competing with 1 driver capable of getting points and they're spending their lives fixing parts instead of developing new ones.

Along is much happier there and he's been able to show his skill

Williams should really consider HAAS as an example of what they need to do, especially with their drivers

That truth of life - "Take one step backward so you can move 2 steps forward" -, is true in one single condition; Time (timeframe). If you take a step backward right now now you have a maximum time allocation to make the ''two steps forward'' as everything in nature revolves around time. Thus any step backward must be followed by a forward motion in faster timeframe than allocation. Otherwise there will no ''two steps forward'' once the timeframe is redundant. The problem(s) Williams face is the timeframe allocation; they are simply too slow in moving forward compare to other teams. Just a thought.

I love Williams, I play them in F1 manager and work them back to championships. Beautiful past, time for a beautiful future.

The problem is that for 2026 there is a whole new formula, meaning everyone starts over and there is the greatest amount of divergence between the teams. F1 claims to want parity, but in the end every new formula means less parity until the back markers catch up, and then another new formula starts the cycle all over again. This isn't all a strange coincidence.

Maybe Adrian Newey will re-join Williams and help them get back to the top

There is performance, if we can extract it we can score points, wow that statement must cover all but Redbull, honestly is that worth repeating lol.

It’s just karma for Sargeant getting shafted by the team for Albon’s F up earlier in the season.

Perfect timing 😂

Never understood why Sergaent was kept. He must have a good sponsor.

Be much better when Newey is there :)

I was MIA from the internet for a couple days. I'm shocked Albono chose a team that won't have a hope to be competitive for another 4-6 years. But then again, it was either Williams or a one-year at Merc with nothing guaranteed for 2026. So, I guess I'm not too shocked.

Probably doesn’t help williams that half of their usable data is in the barriers most weekends

it doesn't really make sense to make a more consistent car with lower peaks and higher lows, for a team in the back of the field group. the amount of points scored by these teams across the season is so minimal that you only need a handful of decent points scores like they had last season and you can leap up the order. consistency scoring points matters when you're fighting at the front

The Williams car last year was an example of how teams at the back could be better off going all-in on a specific strength of their car, rather than trying to design an all-rounder that is extremely unlikely to match at least 5 teams on those terms

3:16 100,003%

Logan has made gains this season that he isn't being given enough credit for.

Still cannot believe they ran everything off from Excel spreadsheets. Bonkers

Williams should be using Logan at this point to test out setups and race strategies ands let Albon focus on points. Logan in that car is not going to find points with any regularity (if at all) but he could be a useful team player like Kevin at Haas has become.

Hope bottas goes there next year, be great team with albon

I hope Albon can help pull Williams up the grid.

I love it when The Race explains how Williams is actually a good team that gets bad results.

Thats why they need adrian newey!!

Smart guy..no need to climb..better to lock a seat and enjoy!

Yet more proof that points down to 15th or so instead of just the top 10 would be better.

They will rise again

Andretti should buy Williams.

I don't know what they're smoking but you definitely want a peaky car when fighting for scraps. I'd rather a car that finishes dead last consistently but wins one race than a car that gets exactly 10th all season. The only time it's better to be consistent is fighting for podiums/top 5s and there's almost no way this chassis is ever getting to that point even if every bit of development is the right way. It feels like more of a gamble to rely on a McLaren level upgrade that they don't forsee coming than remain peaky and at least get points here and there.

I hope Albon's contract extension boosted Williams's result in 2024.

Ummm ...I don't think you mentioned how overweight the car (supposedly) is once. Strange. ☮

go alex and williams :D

Hearing about "development setbacks" makes you wonder if Andretti would really do a worse job if they joined.

Ahh so they caaaaan be good if only they were faster. Great philosophy Williams

I think he made right choice

My big Q is: Does Alex know something we don't - or, does he accept he can't get the second Merc seat and has no better options than where he is?

Part of me was kinda hoping we would see Alex in the other Mercedes seat.

hm. 'peaky' might be better for getting sponsorship money as you can show you are getting into Q3. consistent is good when it is consistently getting into Q3. not so good if it is never getting into Q3.

Yeah no consistency, but you can't say Logan is getting the most out of the Williams to help the car's development

Erratic chassis performance - What other car on the grid is that like???

Williams is a great environment for Albon

Idk, something about James tells me this team is still on the right track.

Its dealings with Toto and Mercedes need to break away.

3:01 Logan Sargent did not SIT OUT of the Aussie GP. Call it what it is. He was benched.

If Williams had a better driver for the second seat, they would’ve scored at least one point this year

Sargent just isn't getting it done.

I’m sorry but it’s time for Sargent to go and get Bottas back experience and race winner driver with development skills is what Williams need can’t depend on one driver to carry the team.

More than ever, the teams at the back are relying on misfortune for the top 5 teams, who have a lock out of the top 10 in normal circumstances (Lance Stroll pending)

The problem with F1 is the rule set. The cost cap is ok but, teams should be able to spend the money HOWEVER they see fit. If they want to spend more time in the tunnel then they should be able to. If they want to develop 20 engines a season they should be able to. If they want to rent a track and spend weeks on it, they should be able to. The current rule set makes it nearly impossible to move up the grid. This used to be an engineering race and it has gotten away from its roots. Fucking bureaucrats have gotten their hands on it and ruined it.

But Andretti and GM wouldn't be a good addition.

Seems to be a lot of wishful thinking here. Instead of an inconsistent car that sometimes did well, they now have a car that is consistently poor. But it could be, might be, better in the future - or not.

Pin this comment because Williams will have a huge upgrade in Austria to Hungary time span A upgrade package that is so big that it will genuinely be able to fight top 2-5 teams if they remain static which is impossible but that just gives you an idea about the jump they are about to make. Crashes cost money which results in delay of upgrades but it doesn't change the development as that's practically free from any cost cap limitations

William must Copy What Ducati in Motogp development Just Focuse in Straight Speed make car goes to 400mph so they can wins even decrease 10-50 on corner they can become poidium not back mark team

Needs 2 drivers

Logan may not be as fast as Albon during quali, but he is doing okay in the race and moving forward. Albon is also destroying car after car due to driver error. Logan is getting a bad reputation because his team just doesn't believe he can do the job they hired him for.

How is this paradoxical? The easiest way of being consistent is to be consistently slow. Being consistent in isolation is not a desirable goal. You want to be consistently FAST, otherwise you can do like Sargent, just consistently end up on the wall. Your results will be consistent, consistently unsatisfactory.

So the Williams has lost its straight-line speed advantage, and now it's just bad everywhere, and they don't understand how to fix it.

In reality, nice guy but no real other options to stay on the grid. Everyone looks good against his current teammate.

Who gives a shit if its less peaky if its not delivering results. Most teams would be aiming to deliver the best possible results against the resources available, and for a team as low as williams designing a car that can occasionally be brilliant is much better than being a bit less mediocre all the time 🤷🏼‍♂️