For all the money Stroll is brining in through daddy, why are his company names not adorning the Williams? Daddy protecting the brands until they know whether baby boy will do any good or not?
Stroll already experienced in the book of driver excuses :- "What happened to cause Lance Stroll's spin on Wednesday that has led to Williams cancelling today's test? Stroll himself was coy. "Unfortunately just a little thing at the end," he said. "A victim of a situation that happened on the end on the car, which just threw the car away from me. There was an issue on the car, I was a victim of the situation. We are still figuring it all out, so I don’t want to get into details about it." What could it have been? Williams engineering chief Rob Smedley was keen not to criticise the driver, but revealed it had been a mistake on cold tyres. “They are good to lean on them, but there is a certain point where they become very tricky," Smedley said. "Lance was out on cold tyres, on a cold medium tyre, on an out-lap with a lot of fuel in the car, and the tyre stepped away from him. He was an innocent victim of that happening and what should have been an innocuous sideways moment brought him around into the barrier and did some damage. That happens and we expect it to happen there is no blame on his part.” " So basically, inexperience caused his crash. Not allowing for cold tyres and a heavy fuel load. So not a 'victim of circumstance', a victim of his own over exuberance.
Does seem a bit weird. Can't imagine it is to save engine mileage. I wonder if they found something in the data and are waiting for replacement parts? They wouldn't want to let anyone see a weakness
Looks like they're out till after lunch. No Hamilton running today but Bottas should be OK for a few laps.
Yesterday Hamilton was reported to say 'he might report a muscle strain to avoid wet driving!!' Looks like he got his wish!! Seems a little short sighted to me. Surely any driver would want to know how the car with different aero and tyres would perform in the wet before having to do so under quali or race conditions! Unless of course Lewis knows that there are BIG changes to PU or aero before first race even then seems silly not to see what the new wet and inter tyres are like.
Electrical glitch... yeah, that thing has run non-stop for about 9000 laps and now, on the wet running day, a day/test that Hamilton said he wasn't keen to do, they find an electrical glitch.. OK..
Hamilton has probably caught on to the fact that wets are only needed for safety car running or returning to the pits under a red flag. You'd have to assume Mercedes wouldn't purposely miss wet running but then they're a lot cleverer than us in this field.
Him, along with Vettel, Max and Alonso are probably the best drivers in the wet in the current field, given the car he's got, knowing it could drive upside down in a monsoon, don't think he or the team will learn anything they won't already be aware of.
hmm, McLaren, from F-duct to F-uct. Hope someone buys Manor (sure I heard a rumour on Sky last week) so they have someone to race. (edit: just read that the last ditch effort failed 24 hours ago)
Interesting Bottas managed 9 laps before lunch. So what ever the 'electrical glitch' they were sorting out also gave them time to switch from Lewis config to Bottas.
FIA release the official entry list and Manor are not listed. I am very sorry to say I think that is the end of them
Don't know why, like Red Bull with Toro Rosso, the likes of Merc didn't buy Manor, they could have used it for their Jnr drivers, its not as if they couldn't afford it, they probably spend the amount it takes to run such a team on their catering!
