2015 Hungarian Grand Prix

[Nitrodaze]

Ferrari schooled Williams on how to win a race after both of your cars win the start from Mercedes. The lessons were:

1. Make sure that the faster of your cars is in the front.

2. Pit stops must be fast and well-timed

3. It's helps when Mercedes cars have an altercation on the first lap, and then keep touching other cars the rest of race ;-)

To be fair, there was no rain to mix things up for ferrari.

[gm99]

If Mercedes keep having dodgy weekends like this, then one have to seriously consider Vettel as a championship contender. 42 points is not enough cushion for Hamilton to dismiss Vettel as threat. At half way point, 42 points is enough gap for Vettel to have real hope of sneaking into the fight for the championship in the 2nd half of the season.

Interestingly, in 2012 Vettel also went into the summer break in third place with a 42-point-deficit (to Alonso) and we all know how that season ended up

[The Black Knight]

Interestingly, in 2012 Vettel also went into the summer break in third place with a 42-point-deficit (to Alonso) and we all know how that season ended up

If he pox'd his way to another WDC I'd be absolutely disgusted. He's worth two of the championships he has so far, no more. I doubt that will be the case this time anyway as Hamilton is on top form and if it gets to that situation, I think Merc will do the right thing and back Hamilton just as Ferrari are backing Vettel. Team interests must come first.

[Hawkmoon]

If he pox'd his way to another WDC I'd be absolutely disgusted. He's worth two of the championships he has so far, no more. I doubt that will be the case this time anyway as Hamilton is on top form and if it gets to that situation, I think Merc will do the right thing and back Hamilton just as Ferrari are backing Vettel. Team interests must come first.

Alonso got rogered by a Lotus twice in the closing stages of 2012 which cost him the title. There's nothing to say the same thing couldn't happen to Hamilton.

Hamilton should win the title comfortably. He's got a serious performance advantage over 18 of the 19 other cars and is a class above Rosberg. I'd be seriously ecstatic if Vettel were to pinch the title (a la Raikkonen in 2007) but I won't be putting any money on it.

[Nitrodaze]

I wonder what is going on with the front wings at this race. Two on different cars broke off at speed. Are they too flimsy or was there unusual vibration at the Hungaroring causing the wings to snap off. The Ferrari front wings are new, hence it may be that they got the rigidity of the struts wrong. The Force India car is new but has done one full race at silverstone where the wings survived the entire race. How many of these has happen this season?

[jens]

Vettel is sort of what Ricciardo was last year - an outside challenger.

Vettel has actually done all his critics have asked him to do. Change teams, prove yourself in a "non-Newey" car and prove that you can win races and be a challenger in non-best car (which arguably Hamilton/Alonso have proven in the past). Ferrari is certainly no match to the Mercedes, but Vettel is not too far from championship leaders. I'd say Vettel is having a stunning season. Were he to challenge right till the end of the season, it would be up there with the most stunning achievements seen in F1.

Top marks to Seb!!

However, realistically. I don't expect a title challenge from Seb. Mercedes car advantage is big enough for them to comfortably net 1-2 in most upcoming races. Just like they halted Ricciardo's challenge last year.

[jens]

Ferrari schooled Williams on how to win a race after both of your cars win the start from Mercedes. The lessons were:

1. Make sure that the faster of your cars is in the front.

2. Pit stops must be fast and well-timed

3. It's helps when Mercedes cars have an altercation on the first lap, and then keep touching other cars the rest of race ;-)

Just like Red Bull schooled Williams last year in "how to win races".

Williams certainly has got a fast car, but not "completeness" in the team, which is what big teams (Merc, Ferrari, RBR) have. Perhaps a problem of your standard privateer team, i.e lack of budget to trim everything to an excellent level. You can have a fast car, but not truly capitalize. Lotus won 2 races in 2012-2013, but I certainly felt they should have more than that with the car they had. They certainly narrowly missed out on a number of occasions.

[Nitrodaze]

The Williams situation is a puzzling one. What l can definitely say is that they are not your ordinary privateer team. They are multiple world champions. In their previous guise, they knew how to win races and championships. Clearly they are stretched budgetwise, but they have problems on 2 key fronts; operationally on race day, they are failing to capitalize on opportunities that come their way. Secondly, the car is not consistently fast. It is great at some tracks and woeful at others. They did not score a single point at the Hungary when Mclaren with a worst car than theirs, managed to get both Mclaren cars into the top ten.

Hungary was a very poor showing of the Williams team. They need to take a much closer look at their operation and make some hard decisions. The Williams operation, simply is not working at its optimum.

[jens]

The Williams situation is a puzzling one. What l can definitely say is that they are not your ordinary privateer team. They are multiple world champions.

This is the mistake people often make. I mean... it doesn't matter if you won titles a decade or two ago. Things change. What has changed? NEW PEOPLE are working in Williams. Who is left of those people, who won titles with Williams? I mean even Adrian Newey has already changed teams multiple times after Williams. It is all new people there. Results are dependent on budget and people. They either are or aren't. History can't be confused with present situation.

"Past champions" is just a nice statistic, which people can nostalgically rely on. Lotus was also once a multiple champion, but they were in doldrums by early 1990s. Same with Brabham. I like to be nostalgic a lot, I like to watch old F1 videos. But I also know fully well I can't confuse past and present.

I used to be a fan of the Jordan team, but during the 2003 season I realized the "good old Jordan", which challenged top teams, was a thing of past, and the new one was a cash-strapped small team, which barely survived. It was a bit painful to digest the new situation, but I had to do it.

[Nitrodaze]

Results are dependent on budget and people. They either are or aren't. History can't be confused with present situation.

I think you touched on the key to success when you say results are dependent on budget and people. The injection of new talent into the Williams team brought about the improvement that have them in 3rd place in the constructor table. They have good people in the team clearly, and they seem to be on cusp of breaking through to a more competitive level of performance. They at least are in a position where people care to place a higher expectation on the team to perform consistently as a 3rd place team with real desire to improve to 2nd place this year. And show signs of hunger to get to the very front.
We can say what we like, at the end of the day, it is the outcome that really matters. Williams is not your ordinary privateer team, because taking on Ferrari and Redbull and attaining 3rd place with their budget is testament of that fact. If it was easy, Force India or Lotus would be in that position. With the severe limitations on chassis and aero designs, it is much tougher for non-engine manufacturer teams to find the sort of edge that saw Brawn win a WCC and WDC a while back. The sharp end is about engine performance and high downforce package. Hence you would expect manufacturer teams to be at the sharp end. Mercedes and Ferrari as it were. Breaking through that or getting into the mix of these teams [Merc and Forza] is an achievement that Williams can be proud of, l think. They just need to do it consistently at all tracks.