2024 F1 General Discussion Thread

Carlos Sainz to Williams just confirmed.

I do hope this rebuilding at Williams continues for Carlos, he deserves it.

finally the missing appendix of Williams …I missing piece of williams 2025

Sauber Audi with Hulkenberg and Bottas is a decent pairing given the careers both drivers have had.

In starting out it is probably better to have all the experience in the seats , having Bottas still there familiar with everyone in the team makes the most sense .

On track, Williams have only gone backwards since James Vowles took over. I know he keeps talking a big game about rebuilding and the media love him, but there has been zero genuine evidence that his rebuilding is actually going to bear any fruit.

They've failed to even turn up with adequate parts to field two cars at some events. This was blamed on legacy systems rather than Vowles of course, but they always managed with those legacy systems before. Meanwhile in the standings they've fallen well behind teams like Haas and RB who they had been much more competitive with in previous seasons and they currently only stand ahead of Sauber, who will be expecting a big Audi boost in the coming years.

I hope I'm wrong but it seems like a terrible place for a driver of Sainz's talent to end up. It seems like madness that he hasn't ended up in that Mercedes seat as he has the talent to mount a championship challenge in that car. The team will struggle a lot more if they're depending on Russell to be a team leader alongside a rookie who still hasn't exactly set the world on fire in F2.

On track, Williams have only gone backwards since James Vowles took over.

Vowles took over last year. In 2022 they finished last with 8 points. Last year they finished 7th with 28 points.

Ehhh, Williams have been getting better since he took over. They were absolutely nowhere, and I mean nowhere, a few years ago. He has transformed how the factory operates, and they have been pretty open about how that has impacted the expected performance on the track.

They are also tiny compared to other teams in terms of their operations, the factory is old. The legacy systems and processes in place are indeed why they were/are still a bit behind. That has to be fixed in order for the on track results to come.

I think you might be a bit unfair on Vowels in particular, but he is showing his worth and knowledge.

This video goes into the details of it all.

Congratulations to McLaren for securing their first Constructors championship since 1998

As well as the increased security costs the team would incur in Mexico and possibly COTA

Williams have been poor for a while. It takes some time to turn that around. 2026 is the fair season to judge their efforts.

I listened to the race podcast last night and they were suggesting that it's possible that Perez is only getting a reprieve for another few races, there's another bit of a break after Singapore, and Perez has been good at Azerbaijan and Singapore in the past. They seem to think that if he's failing still after the next 4 faces he could be out then.

It is odd how they seem to have lost their cutthroat-ness alright.