Okay, I hate Ralf Schumacher as the next one. He is a dunce. BUT he didn't say that Sargeant has a race-to-race contract, he said that the REPAIRED CHASSIS has a race-to-race contract. He made a very very bad timed joke and people that don't speak German misheard and are now publicizing the wrong things.
Source: Am German, watched the broadcast
He makes some decent jokes every weekend he comments. That and that you can very clear hear when he can't believe the dumb shit his co commentator said (which happens regularly) are the positive things about his casting.
The problem is Mick was quick but also known for his large car destroying crashes. Not something Williams needs right now given their spare parts issues.
He had a few crashes (few but very big) and they were caused by him pushing more than the car can handle (unlike with Logan). The 2021 car was the worst car rookies can get and haas is the worst team a rookie can land into. The 2022 car was better and Mick's crashes were in the first half of the season. In the second part of the season he was much better than KMag, but it was not possible to get that many points anymore since most teams overtook Haas in the development game.
Do I rate Mick as a top driver or a future WDC? No, but to think he would be same or worse than Logan is just ignorant. He is fast and Williams should consider taking him at least for the rest of the year.
If all of his issues were down to Haas’ car, why did Ferrari Driver Academy decide midway through 2022 to part ways with him for 2023? Having access to his sim and testing data, his feedback, the full picture of his development trajectory over the preceding several years, the feedback and impressions of all of the teams he’d worked with, all in addition to his on-track performance at haas?
Could it be that…..f1 is meant to be the pinnacle of motorsport and….a holistic assessment of a driver with some performance potential and huge nostalgia/full-circle potential still found that he might not be worth retaining?
What rubbish.
Russell was still a Mercedes junior all three years at Williams, as was Ocon at Manor, and Wehrlein at Sauber.
Bianchi was a FDA member during his years at Marussia, as was Perez at Sauber and leclerc at sauber. FDA even kept ilott on as a “FDA member on a gap year” for his first year of indycar.
Ferrari simply no longer wanted to retain an option on schumacher after 2022, having the full picture provided by all of the information I listed above. It doesn’t mean mick is a dregs of the earth shit driver who belongs nowhere, it does mean Ferrari did not think he belonged in f1 and were no longer willing to support him. I hope he does find success elsewhere (Race of Champions was cool to see his ice driving skills)… and I hope others can gradually accept the reality that his those with access to the fullest picture of who he is as an f1 driver, beyond haas’ cars or performance issues, were ultimately not impressed.
Ferrari split ties” because they didn’t have a seat for him at their team or a customer and he wouldn’t be received by any other teams as a Ferrari driver. No need to have an active F1 driver in their JR development program.
Keep going with that thought. Why were they willing for him to be received by other teams…… instead of supplementing or supplanting shwartzman, whose SMP funding took a hit in 2022? The marketing benefits of having a Schumacher in Ferrari in some capacity had massive potential, and yet why were they willing to let him go?
> no need to have an active f1 driver in their jr development program
FDA is not just the junior development scheme, it also encompasses the contractual option. I provided several examples above of active f1 drivers being FDA members, including Perez who was (if a priority at all) a lesser priority than bianchi and not exactly waiting in the wings for promotion to SF.
Ferrari can believe in a driver and not believe he’s better than their current lineup… those items aren’t mutually exclusive. Regardless of the room for debate on how good/bad Mick is, nobody would compare him to Leclerc, Sainz or now Lewis…
His car was dog shit. No one would be quick in that. He was actually matching Kevin and sometimes was even faster later in the season. He wasn't really given enough time and opportunity in F1
He was reasonable good for a young driver who's first year almost didn't count with that haas.
The probelm were the crashes but most of them happened in the first half of the season, he improved over the season
He did? I got the impression Schumacher was quite quiet and did not like confrontation? I remember his seat was uncomfortable in the early races and he didn't say anything as he did not want to cause a fuss.
Looking at Ayao’s effusive praise for bearman’s fp1s last year, and the ways that it was framed (we didn’t expect X from a young driver, he works in Y and Z ways which was refreshing, he and his management were so easy to work with…) kind of gave me pause. I thought all of the stuff around schumacher’s off-track issues at haas was just rumormongering and sensationalizing, but Ayao’s comments seemed to hint at a grain of truth.
I mean, he wasn't in the same league as his brother, but he was fast as hell, until his massive crash in 2004 where he broke his back.
He finished with 6 Wins, 6 Poles, 27 Podiums, 8 Fastest laps and between 1999 and 2003 finished 6th, 5th, 4th ,4th 5th, in a car that was worse than the Ferrari and Mclaren.
He was a fine F1 driver, and just because he has some extremely questionable views now doesn't mean his racing record deserves any slander.
Yeah. He's probably the worst F1 "pundit" out there, but let's not pretend like he wasn't a solid driver. You don't get that many wins and podiums being average.
If I could choose I would leave only Timo and Sandra and for the rest I would find replacements.
Sascha is a good pundit, but his lack of f1 knowledge is showing, most of the things he talks (when they get "technical") are bs.
Ralf is ralf, most people can't stand him, he is way too negative and it's sad.
I can't stand Peter, he gives of "creep" vibes and I didn't like the way he talked to a Alfa Romeo intern during and f1 session where it was raining (I think suzuka 2022?). He was bossing her around and had a real condescending tone and the whole segment rubbed me the wrong way. Sadly I can't find the clip and you can't watch past replays on sky (and I don't even have sky anymore) so I can't link it here.
If you are in germany and have apple pay and ios, I would suggest get a vpn, connect to a country that has f1tv pro and buy the subscription through the app. Since you are paying with apple pay f1 doesn't check from where your credit card is coming from and you can buy the subscription. For watching you don't need vpn anyways.
I know he has a bad reputation on Reddit, but really? Herbert wasn't that bad. I actively miss his presence lmao, he was especially good in the stupid supplementary stuff Sky do.
Ah I think you're being a bit generous there. I think he was good in the stupid stuff because he threw himself into it but outside of that he was absolutely diabolical. Just said inflammatory things for the sake of it and unlike a decent wind up merchant never had any arguments or substance to back anything he said up.
It's not. The Sky Sports social media intern misquoted Ralf. Ralf made a badly worded joke. His words were in German and in English:
"Die reparierte Chassis hat im übrigen auch, wie man hört, einen Vertrag von Rennen zu Rennen."
"The repaired chassis has, as it's being said, a contract from race-to-race."
Nevertheless Ralf is one of the worse F1 commentators there are.
Williams' lack of chassis isn't really about money. The old management was extremely backward.
The entire car build was on an excel sheet. When Vowles took over, he started the process of modernizing the system which requires all the employees to learn the new system.
And this made building the car extremely slow. He was very open about this way before the chassis broke.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-a-microsoft-excel-spreadsheet-from-hell-slowed-williams-f1-cars-for-years
They tried to replace an ERP with an excel sheet, wtf. I’ve seen many companies use excel beyond what it’s meant to be used for and more than was good for them, but this has to be up there!
It wasn’t “way before” it was literally a few days lmao, it happened at Aus weekend 22-24th March? The article was only published on 19th March? Max 5 days…
If I have to Google a little longer for older articles, so be it.
https://theathletic.com/4839349/2023/09/07/james-vowles-f1-williams-mercedes/
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-behind-the-curve-williams-is-only-a-positive-for-vowles-in-f1/10564284/
https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-news-williams-chief-surprised-by-extent-of-determination-to-meet-crucial-deadline-doesnt-exist-in-my-old-place-lm22
Apologies - I thought you were just referencing a new system to update from Excel as opposed to the whole operations, as the excel thing was only announced earliest 19th of March from what I can see.
Vowles made veiled references to it last season when he was pushing for an CapEx allowance increase when he said he'd spent their entire CapEx budget allowance for last year buying one critical piece of software that had been standard among the top teams 20 years ago.
Like a 'catch up capex' clause where if you can prove most of the other teams already have this equipment/software/whatever then there is a budget increase to get it?
Also, do you know what the software is? I'm curious to know (and to see how much it costs!), or is it one that's built to order?
I dunno if it's a "catch up" clause in CapEx or if it's a blanket CapEx allowance increase for all teams, but I do think part of Vowles arguments at the time were the CapEx limit as it stood actively harmed their attempts to agin parity, as they were maxing out their CapEx spend and not getting enough in return for that spend. Most the big teams however got their biggest CapEx projects started long before cost cap came in, meaning they're not as limited with their spends under CapEx allowance.
I also don't know if it's off-the-shelf or custom, but to be fair, it's going from 2000 to 2024 tech-wise and probably akin to something Boeing, NASA or whatever use to track parts off satellites or something, as well as racing teams logging car parts.
Afford ? it's a production issue, not a financial one.
This is a team that had to ask the FIA to be allowed to spend significantly more than the cap on infrastructure upgrades, money isn't an issue.
Money still is an issue, because they are using budget cap space on other things. I'm sure they're spending all of it on things, but they have to choose when and how.
They're overhauling their production process, Williams were tracking production via a massive excel spreadsheet, between that and a massive design overhaul of their car they haven't had time, if it was a financial thing that implies they wouldn't be capable of fielding a spare chassis all season and that's ludicrous.
That's what I was alluding too, yes. They are spending money on other things. It being a financial thing does not at all imply to me that they wouldn't have one all season. They could have one now, but deemed it not worth the time and money to spend on it earlier. Time is basically the same thing as money. Things can generally be done faster if more money is spent on it. Instead, they were spending time and money rehauling old systems first. We only know about it because it went poorly.
If memory serves, the reason the chassis production took them so long this time was down to changing how they produced the tubs (it's made of about 1000 parts now instead of the 200 they were made from last year back) with a knock-on that staff had to adapt and learn the new method and process, leading to a longer production cycle for them. As they were flying close to the wind, they pushed back tub #3's production to ensure getting tub #1 and #2 ready. As you said, it was a gamble that fell through but it's as much due to needing to go through the modernisation process sooner rather than put it off till later (as this is something Vowles felt needed to be done, to better prep the factory going forward).
It’s not that they couldn’t afford it, they didn’t make it yet. What team expects their drivers to crash this badly multiple times so early in the season?
I doubt F2 drivers would be more expensive than Sargeant. If they have 0 faith in him and don't think that he can even bring points then just try anyone else from F2 who Williams thinks highly of and is willing to give it a shot.
Even being a champion doesn't mean much. The likes of Maldonado, Vandoorne & Palmer. All won GP2 but didn't amount to much in F1. At least Maldonado did get a win in F1 (plus in his GP2 winning season he beat Perez and Bianchi)
Because they want him there. Otherwise they would’ve let him go at the end of last season. It’s not like his poor performance in races 1 and 2 were a surprise.
His performance wasnt bad in either. couldve qualified better but he ran well in both. Look at his pace. Right there with Albon. Williams tried to kill him Bahrain but aside from that he was on pace
Ah, the Sky "expert" Ralf Schumacher whose preparations to race weekends consist of watching Drive to Survive. The German Sky commentators are not even at the track but instead at the Sky HQ in Munich.
Maybe not for this race. But in general Ralf (or I rare cases Timo Glock) and Peter are having the interviews with the drivers and principals in the pit lane. Then Ralf goes to the commentators booth with Sascha. TBH I really hate Ralf’s attitude for being a smart mouth. He corrects Sascha for every sentence.
I mean, that's a good thing, innit. They really do not need to be there and you can avoid burning out an entire team, as it wouldn't just be two overpaid pundits flying there, but also the entire support team on 40k yearly wages. Also, climate change and shit.
If it is true, its pretty indicative of Williams managing the situation poorly. If you dont think hes good enough for the seat, which is reasonable, why are you not transitioning to another driver?
If you do think hes good enough, why are you not committing to a full contract so he can race without constantly wondering if he'll even have a seat next week?
And if youre not sure, why are you not offering him a full contract thats more incentive-based so you can find out while minimizing your financial risk and damage to logans confidence?
I doubt its true, it seems like complete incompetence if it is and the source is worthless. But if its true it does say a lot.
Ralf Schumacher is full of shit so this can safely be diregarded
James Vowls has gone on record multiple times to say that Logan was staying at least until the end of the season
It's already been suggested by Joe Saward that they're waiting for Antonelli to turn 18 (which will happen at Monza) and then Sargeant will get dropped for him.
Vowles has indicated he would prefer not to take Kimi although he likes him a lot. He said hed rather take one of their own to show confidence in the academy. Which is the same reason he said he wanted to give logan more time
And it's not the first time he does that. His shit-stirring got so bad that Günther Steiner stopped talking to Sky Germany and only started talking to them again at the start of this season now that he is out at Haas and has joined the TV pundits.
Replace the person in F1 who crashes so much it’s negatively impacting his team’s development with the last person in F1 who crashed so much it negatively impacted his team’s development.
So at worst you're at the same point you were at. Also Mick at least showed some speed, and while we don't know if he's improved I trust that the Mercedes coaching is alot better than the shitbox of the 2021 Haas.
He will be around at least till after the Miami GP. If they want him for all the US races then that only leaves 2 more after that so may as well see out the season.
Because Merc was caught off guard by Lewis moving to Ferrari. Their plan likely was to swap Antonelli in for a retiring Lewis in 2026 and now they have a year of an empty seat. It’s going to be hard to get any of the good drivers available to agree to a one year deal knowing there’s no possibility of extension (even Sainz I’d say) and they can’t risk losing Antonelli. He’s their future. They have no other prospects.
Also F2 literally just started, drawing any conclusions from the results is pointless.
If it’s true that Sargeant’s contract is race-to-race in addition to allowing Williams to give his car to Albon, then Williams deserves every bit of shit luck they get this season. You can’t tell someone they’re a bad driver that you’re looking to dump at the first opportunity and then expect them to have the confidence to perform well.
Anyone who thinks he’s in that seat this year for results purposes is completely lost. He’s there because he’s American and because he’s a Williams Academy driver. The only thing they signed him this year to do is drive around at the back and not wreck the car, which he’s failing at.
He could have 10000% confidence and he'd still be shit. The only mistake that Williams made was signing him for a 2nd season and granted, that is a big stupid mistake.
Even if it's not exactly a race to race contract, buying out the rest of his contract will not be expensive if they want to replace him mid-season.
Whether he's replaced mid-season mostly depends on whether they can find a suitable driver that isn't already driving under contract in F1. In other words, it pretty much limits them to a rookie driver unless they can work something out with another team and driver.
The corner he crashed at is completely his fault. As soon as you go off that curb in particular, you'd better be off throttle and hammer the brake immediately, or else you get exactly this outcome.
I think if he fumbles a bit, they might consider letting him go after Miami. It's still his home state and they won't want to go there without supporting him. However, they can't just allow him to drag on like this.
I don't think they'd bring in Mick, but I wonder if Seb would consider it? There wouldn't be very high expectations other than for him to bring the car home and help them with development. And Alex is the perfect teammate to see if he still "has it."
Logan is a great driver, but he’s seemingly in the headspace of a driver that needs a reset. Unfortunately, losing his seat to Albon in Australia was the worst thing that could happen to his confidence.
Okay, I hate Ralf Schumacher as the next one. He is a dunce. BUT he didn't say that Sargeant has a race-to-race contract, he said that the REPAIRED CHASSIS has a race-to-race contract. He made a very very bad timed joke and people that don't speak German misheard and are now publicizing the wrong things. Source: Am German, watched the broadcast
OK that's quite a clever gag actually.
He makes some decent jokes every weekend he comments. That and that you can very clear hear when he can't believe the dumb shit his co commentator said (which happens regularly) are the positive things about his casting.
Had to scroll so much to get this. Thank you dear stranger !
That’s because nobody has ever heard a German joke before. Nobody…
there was that one translated joke. i didn't actually hear it but was quite deadly
But technically that joke was English and translated to German to used as a weapon to end WWII. So still not a “German” joke…. ; )
I’m not even German, and have the most basic of understanding of how to decipher words and phrases and even i understood what he said and meant
Reminds me of this very funny subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/GermanHumor/
Oh my lord, this means "here's how Mick can return" articles are back soon 💀
As if Ralf had ever stopped.
Mick will get session to session contract.
Including a breakdown of Qualifying into 3 sessions rather than lumping it together as 1
Don't need that when you're out in Q1
And then out of contract
i heard mick gets a lap to lap contract
the urge to make a "your mom" joke is overwhelming me. *insert guy about to explode meme*
"Somehow, Schumacher returned..."
If the Williams drivers keep crashing the cars, and that's costing the team money, Mick Schumacher is the last person they need
Nah theyre not getting Mick. Vowles doesnt like him.
The problem is Mick was quick but also known for his large car destroying crashes. Not something Williams needs right now given their spare parts issues.
He had a few crashes (few but very big) and they were caused by him pushing more than the car can handle (unlike with Logan). The 2021 car was the worst car rookies can get and haas is the worst team a rookie can land into. The 2022 car was better and Mick's crashes were in the first half of the season. In the second part of the season he was much better than KMag, but it was not possible to get that many points anymore since most teams overtook Haas in the development game. Do I rate Mick as a top driver or a future WDC? No, but to think he would be same or worse than Logan is just ignorant. He is fast and Williams should consider taking him at least for the rest of the year.
If all of his issues were down to Haas’ car, why did Ferrari Driver Academy decide midway through 2022 to part ways with him for 2023? Having access to his sim and testing data, his feedback, the full picture of his development trajectory over the preceding several years, the feedback and impressions of all of the teams he’d worked with, all in addition to his on-track performance at haas? Could it be that…..f1 is meant to be the pinnacle of motorsport and….a holistic assessment of a driver with some performance potential and huge nostalgia/full-circle potential still found that he might not be worth retaining?
Because after one season in a car you are not an academy driver anymore??
What rubbish. Russell was still a Mercedes junior all three years at Williams, as was Ocon at Manor, and Wehrlein at Sauber. Bianchi was a FDA member during his years at Marussia, as was Perez at Sauber and leclerc at sauber. FDA even kept ilott on as a “FDA member on a gap year” for his first year of indycar. Ferrari simply no longer wanted to retain an option on schumacher after 2022, having the full picture provided by all of the information I listed above. It doesn’t mean mick is a dregs of the earth shit driver who belongs nowhere, it does mean Ferrari did not think he belonged in f1 and were no longer willing to support him. I hope he does find success elsewhere (Race of Champions was cool to see his ice driving skills)… and I hope others can gradually accept the reality that his those with access to the fullest picture of who he is as an f1 driver, beyond haas’ cars or performance issues, were ultimately not impressed.
Ferrari split ties” because they didn’t have a seat for him at their team or a customer and he wouldn’t be received by any other teams as a Ferrari driver. No need to have an active F1 driver in their JR development program.
Keep going with that thought. Why were they willing for him to be received by other teams…… instead of supplementing or supplanting shwartzman, whose SMP funding took a hit in 2022? The marketing benefits of having a Schumacher in Ferrari in some capacity had massive potential, and yet why were they willing to let him go? > no need to have an active f1 driver in their jr development program FDA is not just the junior development scheme, it also encompasses the contractual option. I provided several examples above of active f1 drivers being FDA members, including Perez who was (if a priority at all) a lesser priority than bianchi and not exactly waiting in the wings for promotion to SF.
Ferrari can believe in a driver and not believe he’s better than their current lineup… those items aren’t mutually exclusive. Regardless of the room for debate on how good/bad Mick is, nobody would compare him to Leclerc, Sainz or now Lewis…
Mick wasn't quick lol
His car was dog shit. No one would be quick in that. He was actually matching Kevin and sometimes was even faster later in the season. He wasn't really given enough time and opportunity in F1
He was a perfectly acceptable pace for someone with as little experience as him though.
Driving a tractor
Ah yes, because famously the bar set in F1 is "acceptable".
Acceptable is a relative term. In F1 context it means it's acceptable (i.e. good enough) for F1.
If he is good enough for F1, why does no team want to hire him
Because he was also the destructor champion
Well, there are people with "unacceptable" pace who're still in F1 like Sargeant, Ricciardo and Stroll so why not
Stroll and ricciardo are $till in F1 for unknown r€a$on$. Sargeants career prospects are not looking any brighter than Micks , let's be honest.
Crashing at “pace” aka p16 at best or a driver for that’s p20 with out a single crash has the potential to score points he same amount of points
He was trash in quali but actually beat magnussen in race pace on average (over the whole season, excluding other factors like strategy etc..)
Scored the same amount of points in 2022 as Tsunoda too.
He was reasonable good for a young driver who's first year almost didn't count with that haas. The probelm were the crashes but most of them happened in the first half of the season, he improved over the season
Quicker than Logan though
Literally i was reading the comments and waited for someone to call it bullshit.. Dude was slow and he is not cut for an f1 seat.
Yeah. And also he wasn't really quick, not helpful in the car setup, and had a constant attitude.
He did? I got the impression Schumacher was quite quiet and did not like confrontation? I remember his seat was uncomfortable in the early races and he didn't say anything as he did not want to cause a fuss.
Looking at Ayao’s effusive praise for bearman’s fp1s last year, and the ways that it was framed (we didn’t expect X from a young driver, he works in Y and Z ways which was refreshing, he and his management were so easy to work with…) kind of gave me pause. I thought all of the stuff around schumacher’s off-track issues at haas was just rumormongering and sensationalizing, but Ayao’s comments seemed to hint at a grain of truth.
Thats chassis just went onto suicide watch hearing that name mentioned
Oh Christ you’re right - I see his madness.
I mean, as much as I want him back, if his only shot needs to be there... I dunno about that
I mean the situation can’t get much worse then his time at haas
Ralf knows nothing
Not even anything about making shoes?
you would think the guy named shoe maker would know a thing or two about this craft but not even that. What a fraud, smh my head
He isn't even called that! The German word for shoe is "Schuh", he is missing an H. Even the name is a fraud!
Somehow for a moment I thought you were talking about Shoemaker, the astronomer
No, the title is just misquoted
“You know nothing, Ralf Snowmacher”
Ralf is easily the worst pundit in F1, and that's a hill I'll die on.
A crowded hill. Not sure you’ll find much people who disagree on that.
The people who disagree are the ones at Sky Germany employing him, unfortunately. Or they also know he's shit but keep him because of his name.
Schumachers are kept around these days just because of the name.
😢
Damn at least Mick is not spitting bullshit every race weekend. Ralf wants to be the smart great racing driver he never was so badly it's just sad
I mean, he wasn't in the same league as his brother, but he was fast as hell, until his massive crash in 2004 where he broke his back. He finished with 6 Wins, 6 Poles, 27 Podiums, 8 Fastest laps and between 1999 and 2003 finished 6th, 5th, 4th ,4th 5th, in a car that was worse than the Ferrari and Mclaren. He was a fine F1 driver, and just because he has some extremely questionable views now doesn't mean his racing record deserves any slander.
Yeah. He's probably the worst F1 "pundit" out there, but let's not pretend like he wasn't a solid driver. You don't get that many wins and podiums being average.
Partly because his name, partly because every tv show needs an outspoken pundit to shitstir.
I'm a Brit who lives in Germany. Ralf sucks the fun out of the commentary. No idea how he's managed to keep that job for so long.
Haven't heard Ralf in a while, but you do know who the alternative would be?
Timo Glock
Famous Irish racing driver Tim O'Glock
If I could choose I would leave only Timo and Sandra and for the rest I would find replacements. Sascha is a good pundit, but his lack of f1 knowledge is showing, most of the things he talks (when they get "technical") are bs. Ralf is ralf, most people can't stand him, he is way too negative and it's sad. I can't stand Peter, he gives of "creep" vibes and I didn't like the way he talked to a Alfa Romeo intern during and f1 session where it was raining (I think suzuka 2022?). He was bossing her around and had a real condescending tone and the whole segment rubbed me the wrong way. Sadly I can't find the clip and you can't watch past replays on sky (and I don't even have sky anymore) so I can't link it here. If you are in germany and have apple pay and ios, I would suggest get a vpn, connect to a country that has f1tv pro and buy the subscription through the app. Since you are paying with apple pay f1 doesn't check from where your credit card is coming from and you can buy the subscription. For watching you don't need vpn anyways.
I think the question is 'who else is willing'? If you want to have a German former F1 driver as a pundit...
So he fits in well with Sky Germany.
Damon Hill joke
I used to think it was Villeneuve (and he's still up there) but Ralf takes the cake for sure
Herbert?
I know he has a bad reputation on Reddit, but really? Herbert wasn't that bad. I actively miss his presence lmao, he was especially good in the stupid supplementary stuff Sky do.
Ah I think you're being a bit generous there. I think he was good in the stupid stuff because he threw himself into it but outside of that he was absolutely diabolical. Just said inflammatory things for the sake of it and unlike a decent wind up merchant never had any arguments or substance to back anything he said up.
Him and Hill are like everyone's racist grandparents that you have to invite to family gatherings. Anyone not British and they despise them.
If that's true then why is he still in his seat?
It's not. The Sky Sports social media intern misquoted Ralf. Ralf made a badly worded joke. His words were in German and in English: "Die reparierte Chassis hat im übrigen auch, wie man hört, einen Vertrag von Rennen zu Rennen." "The repaired chassis has, as it's being said, a contract from race-to-race." Nevertheless Ralf is one of the worse F1 commentators there are.
Its Ralf he doesnt know anything. I presume he actually has a 23 year contract if Ralf says its race to race
Nah man, Ralf has THE whatsapp contacts and knows what's up, no way he'd make stuff up.^^^^^^^^^/s
A year to year contract
Holding out to see who comes calling with a fat envelope of cash. Or waiting to see what Merc wants to do with Antonelli.
they can't afford a spare chassis, what makes you think they could afford anyone else?
Williams' lack of chassis isn't really about money. The old management was extremely backward. The entire car build was on an excel sheet. When Vowles took over, he started the process of modernizing the system which requires all the employees to learn the new system. And this made building the car extremely slow. He was very open about this way before the chassis broke. https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-a-microsoft-excel-spreadsheet-from-hell-slowed-williams-f1-cars-for-years
They tried to replace an ERP with an excel sheet, wtf. I’ve seen many companies use excel beyond what it’s meant to be used for and more than was good for them, but this has to be up there!
It wasn’t “way before” it was literally a few days lmao, it happened at Aus weekend 22-24th March? The article was only published on 19th March? Max 5 days…
If I have to Google a little longer for older articles, so be it. https://theathletic.com/4839349/2023/09/07/james-vowles-f1-williams-mercedes/ https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-behind-the-curve-williams-is-only-a-positive-for-vowles-in-f1/10564284/ https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-news-williams-chief-surprised-by-extent-of-determination-to-meet-crucial-deadline-doesnt-exist-in-my-old-place-lm22
Apologies - I thought you were just referencing a new system to update from Excel as opposed to the whole operations, as the excel thing was only announced earliest 19th of March from what I can see.
Vowles made veiled references to it last season when he was pushing for an CapEx allowance increase when he said he'd spent their entire CapEx budget allowance for last year buying one critical piece of software that had been standard among the top teams 20 years ago.
Like a 'catch up capex' clause where if you can prove most of the other teams already have this equipment/software/whatever then there is a budget increase to get it? Also, do you know what the software is? I'm curious to know (and to see how much it costs!), or is it one that's built to order?
I dunno if it's a "catch up" clause in CapEx or if it's a blanket CapEx allowance increase for all teams, but I do think part of Vowles arguments at the time were the CapEx limit as it stood actively harmed their attempts to agin parity, as they were maxing out their CapEx spend and not getting enough in return for that spend. Most the big teams however got their biggest CapEx projects started long before cost cap came in, meaning they're not as limited with their spends under CapEx allowance. I also don't know if it's off-the-shelf or custom, but to be fair, it's going from 2000 to 2024 tech-wise and probably akin to something Boeing, NASA or whatever use to track parts off satellites or something, as well as racing teams logging car parts.
Afford ? it's a production issue, not a financial one. This is a team that had to ask the FIA to be allowed to spend significantly more than the cap on infrastructure upgrades, money isn't an issue.
Money still is an issue, because they are using budget cap space on other things. I'm sure they're spending all of it on things, but they have to choose when and how.
They're overhauling their production process, Williams were tracking production via a massive excel spreadsheet, between that and a massive design overhaul of their car they haven't had time, if it was a financial thing that implies they wouldn't be capable of fielding a spare chassis all season and that's ludicrous.
That's what I was alluding too, yes. They are spending money on other things. It being a financial thing does not at all imply to me that they wouldn't have one all season. They could have one now, but deemed it not worth the time and money to spend on it earlier. Time is basically the same thing as money. Things can generally be done faster if more money is spent on it. Instead, they were spending time and money rehauling old systems first. We only know about it because it went poorly.
If memory serves, the reason the chassis production took them so long this time was down to changing how they produced the tubs (it's made of about 1000 parts now instead of the 200 they were made from last year back) with a knock-on that staff had to adapt and learn the new method and process, leading to a longer production cycle for them. As they were flying close to the wind, they pushed back tub #3's production to ensure getting tub #1 and #2 ready. As you said, it was a gamble that fell through but it's as much due to needing to go through the modernisation process sooner rather than put it off till later (as this is something Vowles felt needed to be done, to better prep the factory going forward).
It's not an affordability thing. Williams is not the only team sans a spare chassis.
It’s not that they couldn’t afford it, they didn’t make it yet. What team expects their drivers to crash this badly multiple times so early in the season?
As it stands right now officially Once in 4 races…across 2 cars Yeah who could have guessed /s
I doubt F2 drivers would be more expensive than Sargeant. If they have 0 faith in him and don't think that he can even bring points then just try anyone else from F2 who Williams thinks highly of and is willing to give it a shot.
Because Antonelli is 17.
Should be 18 by mid season
Just in time for the Italian GP, couldn't have asked for more intriguing timing.
Because Antonelli is 9th in F2.
...Which nobody cares about because he skipped F3, has been faster than Bearman on average and is viewed as future world champion material.
Sargeant was 4th in the 2022 season... that doesn't mean much.
Even being a champion doesn't mean much. The likes of Maldonado, Vandoorne & Palmer. All won GP2 but didn't amount to much in F1. At least Maldonado did get a win in F1 (plus in his GP2 winning season he beat Perez and Bianchi)
Because they want him there. Otherwise they would’ve let him go at the end of last season. It’s not like his poor performance in races 1 and 2 were a surprise.
His performance wasnt bad in either. couldve qualified better but he ran well in both. Look at his pace. Right there with Albon. Williams tried to kill him Bahrain but aside from that he was on pace
Ralf Schumacher doesnt know ANYTHING
Is Ralf...
If Ralf Schumacher says it, it's best to think the opposite. He's just a shit Jacques Villeneuve
Ralf. Disregard.
If williams had this little faith in him then there was no point in signing him for 2024
Ah, the Sky "expert" Ralf Schumacher whose preparations to race weekends consist of watching Drive to Survive. The German Sky commentators are not even at the track but instead at the Sky HQ in Munich.
That’s not true. The pre race interviews happen in the pit with Ralf. He then switches to the pundit booth. But I dislike him, too.
The commentators are not on-site for every race. They're in Munich for Japan and China, the only person they have on-site is their reporter Peter.
Maybe not for this race. But in general Ralf (or I rare cases Timo Glock) and Peter are having the interviews with the drivers and principals in the pit lane. Then Ralf goes to the commentators booth with Sascha. TBH I really hate Ralf’s attitude for being a smart mouth. He corrects Sascha for every sentence.
Seriously??? I pay them a shitload of money and they don't even fly to the track????
Same as Sky UK team, only Ted, Crofty and Rachel there
Sorry and Ant
I mean, that's a good thing, innit. They really do not need to be there and you can avoid burning out an entire team, as it wouldn't just be two overpaid pundits flying there, but also the entire support team on 40k yearly wages. Also, climate change and shit.
Toto pitching Mick to James, and Horner pitching Liam.
If that is true, wouldn’t he be out soon?
I really think it’s irrelevant if this is true or not because I wouldn’t doubt that Logan’s time is coming close to an end.
If it is true, its pretty indicative of Williams managing the situation poorly. If you dont think hes good enough for the seat, which is reasonable, why are you not transitioning to another driver? If you do think hes good enough, why are you not committing to a full contract so he can race without constantly wondering if he'll even have a seat next week? And if youre not sure, why are you not offering him a full contract thats more incentive-based so you can find out while minimizing your financial risk and damage to logans confidence? I doubt its true, it seems like complete incompetence if it is and the source is worthless. But if its true it does say a lot.
Ralf Schumacher is full of shit so this can safely be diregarded James Vowls has gone on record multiple times to say that Logan was staying at least until the end of the season
Ralph was missquoted. He joked.the chassis is on a race to race contract. Not Logan
I'm curious who'd they replace him with.
They just called me, I’m flying out and should be ready for FP3 tomorrow
If Nyck De Vries could get points so can you I believe :)
Good luck! Keep it out of the wall!
And text us after you land!
Will the car be ready though?
Yeah I just fixed it
It's already been suggested by Joe Saward that they're waiting for Antonelli to turn 18 (which will happen at Monza) and then Sargeant will get dropped for him.
Vowles has indicated he would prefer not to take Kimi although he likes him a lot. He said hed rather take one of their own to show confidence in the academy. Which is the same reason he said he wanted to give logan more time
Vowles may want that but what Merc wants and how badly they want it may be more influential in who actually gets the seat.
Their academy drivers (and Logan) aren't good enough for F1. Antonelli is almost certain to get the seat at some point in the near future.
Antonelli doesn’t have all the super license points, does he?
points enough, age no, still 4 months shy
And needs to pass his road driving test.
hes had the points since last year.
He does, he won Italian F4 and FRECA. Age is the only thing holding him back.
Yeah he has, by winning Formula Regional Europe and Formula Regional Middle east championships (25p + 18p = 43).
That is quite a ways into the season. Wonder if they'll wait that long
This really sounds like Ralf Schumacher shit stirring in the German media. Vowels has made it clear he isn’t taking Mick.
100% what he’s doing
And it's not the first time he does that. His shit-stirring got so bad that Günther Steiner stopped talking to Sky Germany and only started talking to them again at the start of this season now that he is out at Haas and has joined the TV pundits.
Ralph made a joke about his chassis being on a race to race. Not him. Missquoted
I assume Ralf is throwing this bullshit out to try create an opening for Mick.
Mika/doge
They could very easily put Mick in there.
Replace the person in F1 who crashes so much it’s negatively impacting his team’s development with the last person in F1 who crashed so much it negatively impacted his team’s development.
So at worst you're at the same point you were at. Also Mick at least showed some speed, and while we don't know if he's improved I trust that the Mercedes coaching is alot better than the shitbox of the 2021 Haas.
He will be around at least till after the Miami GP. If they want him for all the US races then that only leaves 2 more after that so may as well see out the season.
Does Ralf ever say anything that's correct?
Thats not what he is saying though....lost in translation.
I want Glock as a commentator, permanently
So if thats accurate then that puts him already on shaky ground as it is
Antonelli in from Monza then
I don't know why people are saying this. He hasn't done great so far in F2. I don't think we will see him in F1 till '26 with the new regs.
Because Merc was caught off guard by Lewis moving to Ferrari. Their plan likely was to swap Antonelli in for a retiring Lewis in 2026 and now they have a year of an empty seat. It’s going to be hard to get any of the good drivers available to agree to a one year deal knowing there’s no possibility of extension (even Sainz I’d say) and they can’t risk losing Antonelli. He’s their future. They have no other prospects. Also F2 literally just started, drawing any conclusions from the results is pointless.
Mazepin waiting in the wings
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, you're a Williams driver.
If it’s true that Sargeant’s contract is race-to-race in addition to allowing Williams to give his car to Albon, then Williams deserves every bit of shit luck they get this season. You can’t tell someone they’re a bad driver that you’re looking to dump at the first opportunity and then expect them to have the confidence to perform well.
Copium. He’s ass. He’s been ass. He’s shown he’s ass for 2 seasons now. Don’t make excuses for him.
Doesn’t change the fact you don’t tell him that if you want anything from him.
Anyone who thinks he’s in that seat this year for results purposes is completely lost. He’s there because he’s American and because he’s a Williams Academy driver. The only thing they signed him this year to do is drive around at the back and not wreck the car, which he’s failing at.
He could have 10000% confidence and he'd still be shit. The only mistake that Williams made was signing him for a 2nd season and granted, that is a big stupid mistake.
F1 is the pinnacle of the sport. If you can't handle this kind of pressure, you shouldn't be there.
Even if it's not exactly a race to race contract, buying out the rest of his contract will not be expensive if they want to replace him mid-season. Whether he's replaced mid-season mostly depends on whether they can find a suitable driver that isn't already driving under contract in F1. In other words, it pretty much limits them to a rookie driver unless they can work something out with another team and driver.
Maybe the Williams is just shit at handling
The corner he crashed at is completely his fault. As soon as you go off that curb in particular, you'd better be off throttle and hammer the brake immediately, or else you get exactly this outcome.
I think if he fumbles a bit, they might consider letting him go after Miami. It's still his home state and they won't want to go there without supporting him. However, they can't just allow him to drag on like this. I don't think they'd bring in Mick, but I wonder if Seb would consider it? There wouldn't be very high expectations other than for him to bring the car home and help them with development. And Alex is the perfect teammate to see if he still "has it."
Try the Austrian https://www.servustv.com/ (may need VPN) instead. Much nicer commentators.
Logan is a great driver, but he’s seemingly in the headspace of a driver that needs a reset. Unfortunately, losing his seat to Albon in Australia was the worst thing that could happen to his confidence.