Where Will Williams Finish in 2017

[KevinCamaroSS]

Now we know the driver line-up where do you think Williams will finish this year? My belief is probably lower, or at least, no better than 2016. Massa is past it and Stroll is a totally unknown factor. Having money does not mean that he is good enough for F1.

[tommunster10]

Having the money to basically spend a year with 5 Merc techies and practicing in a Williams and having an F1 simulator purchased for you means I disagree.
It's absurd what that kid has had thrown at him, if his Daddy really thought he had an ounce of natural talent he'd not of spent so much.
Williams will come 3rd in WCC.
No need to spit your coffee out and slag me off for an opinion though, i have a fun charity bet with another guy on here so if they don't some charity gets £20... just bit of fun.

[Smollet]

5th at best and that's dependent on Mc!aren not living up to their pre season huffing and puffing

[anonymous-user]

KevinCamaroSS said:

Now we know the driver line-up where do you think Williams will finish this year? My belief is probably lower, or at least, no better than 2016. Massa is past it and Stroll is a totally unknown factor. Having money does not mean that he is good enough for F1.

I wonder what else Mercedes gave Williams to take Bottas off their hands.

Money and more assistance with the Mercedes unit?

Massa for Champion

[FourWheelDrift]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

I wonder what else Mercedes gave Williams to take Bottas off their hands.

New knobs in the cars.

[anonymous-user]

FourWheelDrift said:

New knobs in the cars.

Mercedes kept Hamilton.

[tommunster10]

FourWheelDrift said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

I wonder what else Mercedes gave Williams to take Bottas off their hands.

New knobs in the cars.

Exactly.
Certainly worth taking into account. Also the amount Strolls Dad has done for him so far there's no way he'd fall short once he got him a seat in F1. He will be aware surely that Williams will be strong this year.

[Flooble]

FourWheelDrift said:

New knobs in the cars.

That's not a nice way to talk about Massa

[thegreenhell]

tommunster10 said:

Having the money to basically spend a year with 5 Merc techies and practicing in a Williams and having an F1 simulator purchased for you means I disagree.
It's absurd what that kid has had thrown at him, if his Daddy really thought he had an ounce of natural talent he'd not of spent so much.

Why not? He can clearly afford it, so why not take every advantage you can? If he didn't have an ounce of talent then he'd be looking at a season in a Manor, not a season in a Williams. The amount he's spent getting into the Williams would probably have bought him the entire Manor team to play with. Surely it's a sign of confidence in his ability that he's gone for Williams with a stipulation that he has an experienced teammate to measure himself against. He'll very quickly get found out if he hasn't got it.

[Vocal Minority]

I think this is an indicator of people's affection for natural talent.

I personally don't think its any different if someone works hard at it and is as good through girt and steel (or money) or if they have natural talent. And if someone has natural talent why should they just fall back on that?

I guess people just like the latter more as its a bit more romantic and swashbuckling

[slipstream 1985]

thegreenhell said:

tommunster10 said:

Having the money to basically spend a year with 5 Merc techies and practicing in a Williams and having an F1 simulator purchased for you means I disagree.
It's absurd what that kid has had thrown at him, if his Daddy really thought he had an ounce of natural talent he'd not of spent so much.

Why not? He can clearly afford it, so why not take every advantage you can? If he didn't have an ounce of talent then he'd be looking at a season in a Manor, not a season in a Williams. The amount he's spent getting into the Williams would probably have bought him the entire Manor team to play with. Surely it's a sign of confidence in his ability that he's gone for Williams with a stipulation that he has an experienced teammate to measure himself against. He'll very quickly get found out if he hasn't got it.

a stipulation that he has an experienced teammate to set the car up for him.

Fixed that for you.

[tommunster10]

slipstream 1985 said:

thegreenhell said:

tommunster10 said:

Having the money to basically spend a year with 5 Merc techies and practicing in a Williams and having an F1 simulator purchased for you means I disagree.
It's absurd what that kid has had thrown at him, if his Daddy really thought he had an ounce of natural talent he'd not of spent so much.

Why not? He can clearly afford it, so why not take every advantage you can? If he didn't have an ounce of talent then he'd be looking at a season in a Manor, not a season in a Williams. The amount he's spent getting into the Williams would probably have bought him the entire Manor team to play with. Surely it's a sign of confidence in his ability that he's gone for Williams with a stipulation that he has an experienced teammate to measure himself against. He'll very quickly get found out if he hasn't got it.

a stipulation that he has an experienced teammate to set the car up for him.

Fixed that for you.

And the whole "Massa is faster but he's experienced and nearly won the WDC" thing, Stroll against another young driver getting beat would be worse to deal with. (and Martini wanted a driver over 25)
Stroll isn't in a Manor as his Daddy paid Williams 20 mil for the season...bare in mind when Martini used the Williams as a mobile hoarding in the first year of that deal, they paid Williams 15 mil...
Stroll's Daddy also made sure his kid won in the lower formula, brought a team invested in ex Ferrari guys and had a wind tunnel when no other team did, Stroll and his team mate walked the season and made Mercs dominance look poor.

If i'm supposed to admire Stroll jnr on here then i'm sorry but i must of missed that memo.

[rev-erend]

I think Williams will come 3rd..

[slipstream 1985]

rev-erend said:

I think Williams will come 3rd..

last?

[rdjohn]

Slightly better than last.

At least according to SKY Betting odds https://www.skybet.com/formula-1

I think that the top 3 are easy to predict, but I think RB will take points from Mercedes at any circuit where absolute power is not paramount. I also think that RB has the stronger driver pairing.

From 4th downwards, I think it will be very unpredictable, reliability and driver pairings will probably determine who finishes where.

FI and Williams probably have similar strengths in driver pairings and equal PUs, so I think it will be largely down to Renault and McLaren reliability to determine where the lower orders end up in the WCC.

[RobM77]

tommunster10 said:

Having the money to basically spend a year with 5 Merc techies and practicing in a Williams and having an F1 simulator purchased for you means I disagree.
It's absurd what that kid has had thrown at him, if his Daddy really thought he had an ounce of natural talent he'd not of spent so much.
Williams will come 3rd in WCC.
No need to spit your coffee out and slag me off for an opinion though, i have a fun charity bet with another guy on here so if they don't some charity gets £20... just bit of fun.

Whilst I don't agree with this sentiment, why direct it purely at Stroll? All F1 drivers have had massive financial backing to get where they are. Even Formula Ford success requires a six figure sum and has done for many years, and things just increase from there on. And no, usually it doesn't all come from sponsorship. If you don't like money, you're following the wrong sport.

Secondly, where do you get the idea that Lance has no natural talent? In 2016 he won 11 races in Euro F3; that's an ultra competitive series and even with an infinite amount of cash, without serious talent nobody would ever be even top ten, let alone podium and certainly not winning 11 races.

No doubt I shall now be accused of being a Stroll fanboy, which is of course not true, I'm simply pointing out the obvious.

[tommunster10]

RobM77 said:

tommunster10 said:

Having the money to basically spend a year with 5 Merc techies and practicing in a Williams and having an F1 simulator purchased for you means I disagree.
It's absurd what that kid has had thrown at him, if his Daddy really thought he had an ounce of natural talent he'd not of spent so much.
Williams will come 3rd in WCC.
No need to spit your coffee out and slag me off for an opinion though, i have a fun charity bet with another guy on here so if they don't some charity gets £20... just bit of fun.

Whilst I don't agree with this sentiment, why direct it purely at Stroll? All F1 drivers have had massive financial backing to get where they are. Even Formula Ford success requires a six figure sum and has done for many years, and things just increase from there on. And no, usually it doesn't all come from sponsorship. If you don't like money, you're following the wrong sport.

Secondly, where do you get the idea that Lance has no natural talent? In 2016 he won 11 races in Euro F3; that's an ultra competitive series and even with an infinite amount of cash, without serious talent nobody would ever be even top ten, let alone podium and certainly not winning 11 races.

No doubt I shall now be accused of being a Stroll fanboy, which is of course not true, I'm simply pointing out the obvious.

Because in a sport where this is 'how it is', Stroll manages to go even further. It's actually nuts when you read into what his Dad has done for him, fair play and all that but i'll not be rooting for him.
Max Chilton never got much respect and his Dad now looks stingy...

And read up on his F3 2016 season a bit maybe.

“To be racing in Formula One in 2017 is incredible. I can’t thank Williams enough for showing faith in my ability,” Stroll beamed....as his Daddy passed Frank 20 million..

Edited by tommunster10 on Wednesday 18th January 17:57

[anonymous-user]

For once I agree with Tommunster. There nothing to suggest that stroll deserves a seat in F1.

Time will tell but it seems odd that Williams should bring back a retired, way past his best driver who was never known as a racer but does have a reputation of being able to set a car up just as they take on a teenager with a bag of money too big to refuse.

How either of them will cope with the new regs remains to be seen.

[Mr_Thyroid]

Massa will score approximately 25% fewer points than Bottas would have (based on the average deficit over the last three years).

[rubystone]

I never thought I'd see the day when I agreed with Tommi. There were lots of reasons behind Stroll's dominance in F3. But if he steps up to the plate with Williams, they won't matter at all. But there's no way Williams will finish 3rd next year.