“If We're Doing It Wrong, It's Our Fault” - Creative Thoughts on How 2020 Calendar Could Take Shape

0:08 - Williams: “If We're Doing It Wrong, It's Our Fault”
1:44 - Creative Thoughts on How the 2020 Calendar Could Take Shape
2:58 - Fast Feed

Williams: “If We're Doing It Wrong, It's Our Fault”

While Racing Point has been lauded for punching well above its weight in the past by many in F1, their rebranding as Aston Martin’s works team will only increase expectations even further.

Future CEO of Aston Martin, Lawrence Stroll is quite aware of this fact but is also confident in the company

"With the Aston name comes more pressure and expectation. Aston Martin is not just any brand, it has been successful in motorsport and is now being taken to the next level”

"We are continuing to invest in the team to give everybody the resources required and we will see the benefit of those efforts this year as Racing Point"

Racing Point has also been accused of copying Mercedes’ 2019 title-winning car. Williams happens to be the other customer of Mercedes but they didn’t opt to go the same route and deputy team principal Claire Williams explained why.

"If we're doing it wrong, it's our fault. And if we do it right, we can get the credit for it. That's very important for who we are.”

"With our business model, we've been successful in the recent past."

She also appeared to take a dig at the current approach of Racing Point

"It's not that we're not doing well because we don't have a pink Mercedes. I have always been very clear about where Williams stands on being an independent constructor and how proud we are of that. We are in this sport based on what we do"

Racing Point’s technical director Andrew Green said he was surprised that others didn’t take a similar approach but Williams retorted to this by saying:

"That's their choice.”

"They have a very different setup to us. We have a full production department within the team and I have no intention of changing that. They don't have that capacity and bandwidth, so this business model makes sense for them"


Creative Thoughts on How the 2020 Calendar Could Take Shape

When Formula 1 does return to racing, a lot of things have to be figured out and the schedule is one of the most important.

F1 analyst Karun Chandhok has chimed in with his opinion on how F1 could approach this.

"This is an opportunity for Formula 1 to do things we haven't seen before. For example, driving two races in one weekend. You can then drive a race on Saturday and Sunday, just as a test to see how it works"

F1 commentator Martin Brundle added to that by suggesting some out of the box thinking.

"All Formula 1 teams can travel in Europe with trucks and we could get a combination of races. It is even possible that we will see two or three races at Silverstone to get it up and running again".

"It seems to me that the first couple of Grands Prix will be held 'locally' and then they'll see if longer trips can be made again"


Fast Feed

- Further changes to the budget cap are being discussed with the smaller teams wanting it to be reduced to $100 million with the top three leaning more towards $150 million.

- Toto Wolff has reaffirmed that "there's no truth to the stories about” him “going to Aston Martin” as he doesn’t “see any reason to leave” Mercedes

- The second virtual F1 race scheduled for this Sunday will feature many more F1 drivers as compared to the opening round in the form of Charles Leclerc, Alexander Albon, Lando Norris, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi

- George Russell also revealed that he has "never been into esports” but is “definitely, definitely tempted" now

- Christian Horner has made it clear that they will “certainly pick up the subject again at a later time” referring to Ferrari’s secret deal with the FIA

- McLaren has released a statement announcing that they “will temporarily send several members of staff on leave in order to reduce costs during this time” so that they can “protect jobs in the short term” as these “employees can return full time when the economy recovers"

- Otmar Szafnauer feels that “optimistically” F1 could return in “June or July, but it could also be August”

- Drive to Survive Executive Producer, Paul Martin has revealed that “a lot of” what was shown in the series “is down to luck" as they were able to capture some of the most defining moments by being at the right place at the right time

- As per some rumours, the weekend of 16-18 October could see the postponed Chinese GP being conducted

- Sebastian Vettel could see his record of being the youngest F1 champion being broken by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen but he thinks that “the youngest doesn’t matter” and that “winning a championship has always been the thing” he “wanted to achieve"

- George Russell was almost a permanent fixture at the back of the grid during 2019 and jokingly said he contemplated what “the penalty would be if” he “massively jump-started” as it may have been “more beneficial just to do it and take the penalty than starting at the back”