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Williams admits he got it wrong; first for everything
Topic Started: May 19 2008, 09:05 AM (649 Views)
willyshafter
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Frank Williams has admitted that he now regrets his team's split with BMW in the light of the German manufacturer's impressive achievements with its works outfit.

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=42672

Your thoughts John
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John
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My thoughts are that I always felt Frank should have had a little more faith in when BMW wanted more involvement in the design...

But while it is very nice for FW to admit such things it must also follow that BMW regret the split also...

I mean to say that as impressive as their 'go it alone route' has been... If they had been able to apply that with a team of the caliber of Williams I believe BMW.Williams would be WDC now... maybe even multiple.



Didn't Frank recently admit he was wrong to let Damon go... he is in a very reflective mood of late... not planning on retiring is he
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willyshafter
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John,May 19 2008
09:21 AM
My thoughts are that I always felt Frank should have had a little more faith in when BMW wanted more involvement in the design...

But while it is very nice for FW to admit such things it must also follow that BMW regret the split also...

I mean to say that as impressive as their 'go it alone route' has been... If they had been able to apply that with a team of the caliber of Williams I believe BMW.Williams would be WDC now... maybe even multiple.



Didn't Frank recently admit he was wrong to let Damon go... he is in a very reflective mood of late... not planning on retiring is he

My be Sir Frank is looking beyond his time in F1. The team needs to be restructured if it is to ensure that the Williams name remains in F1 after both Frank and Patrick retire. Some equite being bought by a Major manufactor maybe the answer, the big question is are there any left that would consider F1 a marketable exercise.
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Norbert
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John,May 19 2008
10:21 AM
Didn't Frank recently admit he was wrong to let Damon go...

Well, he forced out just about everyone who won a title for him because he refused to reward them with any more money, apart from maybe Jones and Rosberg I don't recall any WDC driver defending it with Williams.....
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willyshafter
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Norbert,May 19 2008
02:52 PM
John,May 19 2008
10:21 AM
Didn't Frank recently admit he was wrong to let Damon go...

Well, he forced out just about everyone who won a title for him because he refused to reward them with any more money, apart from maybe Jones and Rosberg I don't recall any WDC driver defending it with Williams.....

I guess next he will admit he should have took Nakajima as a driver of '88 and not lost the Honda engines.

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Rob
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Maybe he is admitting that his being a hard ass came back and bit him.

You don't have 0 repeat WDCs by being Mr. Nice.
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Red Andy
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So I was right for once? <think>

It's a shame what has happened to Frank's team since they split with BMW. It would be nice to have a proper privateer like Williams competing with the big boys, but sadly it ain't gonna happen any time soon.
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Brave_Lee_Flea
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Rob,May 19 2008
07:18 PM
Maybe he is admitting that his being a hard ass came back and bit him.

You don't have 0 repeat WDCs by being Mr. Nice.

I wonder if it has occurred to anybody that you probably don't get to be the boss of the third most successful F1 team of all time despite being established more that a decade after your nearest rivals, scoring 9 constructors titles and 7 drivers titles as a privateer by being Mr Nice either.

Frank is human, he has made mistakes but lets not get carried away with the criticism here; his achievements have been considerable. Lets also not forget that McLaren spent a number of years in the doldrums before slowly clawing their way back to near the top (they still haven't achieved the summit ...... yet).

Frank Williams may have his day again - especially if budget capping is brought in; his team is already used to running on roughly one third of the budget of the richest teams.
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Red Andy
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Speaking practically, proper budget caps are pure fantasy. The budget cap rules proposed for 2009 and beyond are full of loopholes - why else would the manufacturers have agreed to them? Unfortunately in this day and age, money = success. And Williams don't have the first, so they won't achieve the second.

By all means recognise the remarkable achievements of Frank and his little team. But those achievements are in the past - F1 is a very different beast now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s when Williams did most of their winning. Times have changed, but Williams has not. As a result they have failed to keep up with the top teams in recent years, and I don't personally see that situation altering for some time yet.
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Brave_Lee_Flea
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Red Andy,May 19 2008
09:23 PM
Times have changed, but Williams has not. As a result they have failed to keep up with the top teams in recent years, and I don't personally see that situation altering for some time yet.

No, that's probably true. I just felt people were getting a bit carried away with their criticism.

As for the money thing, I hadn't realised quite how bad Williams have it; the most recent figures I can find suggest that Williams are operating on around $140 million dollars while Ferrari and McLaren operate on nearer $400 million.

That is clearly a handicap that is not going to be easy to overcome. Budget caps may work - after all the manufacturers *want* to reduce their costs. While they may not stick absolutely to the limit it would be hard for any team to hide the spending of an additional $260 million!

So even if they overspend by say 20% Williams will be much more competitive financially than currently and hopefully that would show on the track.
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Alien_SAP_Fiend
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Things not going so well with Toyota then, Frank?
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John
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Alien_SAP_Fiend,May 20 2008
10:07 AM
Things not going so well with Toyota then, Frank?

In the article he ends with...

"We can control everything else, but we're always looking for a healthy engine partner.


"We're delighted with the present one and it may last for many, many years "
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willyshafter
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John,May 20 2008
09:13 AM
Alien_SAP_Fiend,May 20 2008
10:07 AM
Things not going so well with Toyota then, Frank?

In the article he ends with...

"We can control everything else, but we're always looking for a healthy engine partner.


"We're delighted with the present one and it may last for many, many years "

Translation the Toyota engine is not bad but if someone want to offer me a better one I'd be more than happy.
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Alien_SAP_Fiend
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John,May 20 2008
09:13 AM
"We're delighted with the present one and it may last for many, many years "

Doesn't he mean "and may it last..."

<flirt>

I still wonder how Toyota feels about Frank lamenting the loss of BMW as his engine partner, even though he's "delighted with the present one".

William's crapness has not been down to engine reliability has it?

In any case, with the engine freeze on and the 19K RPM limit, aren't all the engines more or less standardised, in terms of performance at least?

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TheCompleteGuitarist
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Red Andy,May 19 2008
07:50 PM
So I was right for once? <think>

It's a shame what has happened to Frank's team since they split with BMW. It would be nice to have a proper privateer like Williams competing with the big boys,

but sadly it ain't gonna happen.......
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