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Williams
Head of Vehicle Performance Rob Smedley has spoken of the teams 2016
challenger the FW38. At the recent Autosport show he spoke of the cars
launch as well as outlining some of the details of the new car.
As it has been
in previous years the Williams team will launch the FW38 at the test race
track, this year it happens to be Barcelona. It will be a low launch with
the covers being taken off in the pit lane.
“We're not going to have any kind of glitzy or glamorous launch, we're just
going to launch it on the 22nd [of February] in Barcelona,” Smedley told Sky
Sports F1.
For the Williams team this year’s winter testing is made up of two four-day sessions. Both take place
at the Spanish Grand Prix venue on February 22-25 and March 1-4
respectively.
Smedley then
spoke of the new FW38 saying that it will feature significant aerodynamic
changes compared to the 2015 FW37. For Smedley the new car will encompass
the biggest evolution he has seen between seasons, given the lack of FIA
rule changes.
Smedley said: "Essentially it's an evolution of [the FW37] design. You're
going to see some quite interesting developments around the front wing area
and underneath the chassis. There are some really interesting developments
around the back end of the car that you're going to see as well.
"The guys in the wind tunnel in particular have done an absolutely stellar
job, and we're really pleased. We're finding new methodologies, new ways to
develop the car, and they're all bearing fruit at the minute.
"We're still pushing on at the minute. If we're going to move forward as a
team then we're going to have to find ways to develop the car smarter and
more efficiently than everybody else. Those are the obvious things, then
there's a myriad of things going on under the skin, which will be less
obvious. The car is an evolution, but definitely in my years in F1 with such
stable regulations it's one of the biggest evolutions I've seen."
Smedley also spoke of how the team has focused on addressing the know issues
that the FW37 had in respect of the car's performance in the wet and on slow
circuits.
Smedley added: "That really comes down to my responsibility, to understand
why the car has specific weak areas. I think if you take last year, and a
little bit with the 2014 car but it was masked by how dominant the power
unit was, then the car has struggled a little bit in the low speed corners,
and in the wet as well.
"At Williams, we have a really good culture of sitting down and admitting
what our problems are, and then from that trying to analyse it as
scientifically as possible, and trying to understand it at a fundamental
engineering level, and then going on to find solutions.
"Those solutions are always in any form engineering or technical forum will
be short, medium and long term solutions. Last year it was very much
focussing on the short-term solutions, what could we do to improve our wet
weather performance? That essentially is car set-up, it's how you use the
tires.
"One of the directives that I get from my boss Pat Symonds is that we must
not have any circuits that we call our 'bogey' circuits, like Monaco, like
Singapore, or if it rains and we're leading the race like in Silverstone and
we end up fifth and sixth or whatever. So he's been very clear to give me
that target, and on the back of that we've put together these working
groups. It's not easy, but we're working on it."
When asked if Williams can challenge for the World Championship, Smedley
said: "That's a very tall order in 2016, I think. Our ambition, as it's been
since the restructure at the end of 2013, is to keep improving. I think we
had a good year in 2014. We had a good year last year and that's kind of
consolidated where we are - that we're running towards the front end. I
think we just have to keep improving from there on.
"It's incredibly tough. It's not an easy ask to even win races in F1 these
days, with the level of competition we've got. But we still keep pushing
forward." |
