Williams’ decision to lose weight has been criticized

We’ve already talked about the different tricks Formula 1 teams use to reduce the weight of their cars. Some refuse to use paint – especially at the Imola stage, Williams cars had a lot of unpainted parts.

This way of reducing the weight of cars was criticized by Jim Wright, senior commercial and marketing specialist at Williams from 1994 to 2006. According to Wright, such a decision is unlikely to deliver significant speed gains, but will certainly increase the team’s commercial attractiveness to sponsors. harm.

“Over the past few weeks I’ve been interested in the engineers turning their attention to the cars’ livery in an effort to shed precious grams, and this culminated in the final stage at Imola,” Jim Wright wrote in his column. † “Frankly, I almost spilled coffee on myself after reading the comments from the team’s chief race engineer, Dave Robson, who acknowledged the destruction of the car’s visual identity, rendering the team nearly unprofitable. At the same time, he carefully avoided estimating how much lap time he allowed to regain the refusal to paint.

I remember a case from the past when I first started working at Williams. Then one of the engineers asked Frank Williams, “Would Rothmans mind if we took the paint off the rear wing and put their promotional sticker on the unpainted carbon?”

Frank’s response was quick and eloquent: “If you’re as good an engineer as Patrick Head thinks you are, you’ll find an alternative way to get the same or greater speed gain without ruining our commercial appeal.

Otherwise, I’m willing to take a check from you to make up for the decline in our Rothmans income from the removal of their suits. Have we agreed?”

That engineer shot like a bullet out of Frank’s office. I hope that Jost Capito, who already has experience in Formula 1, realizes the stupidity of reducing the commercial attractiveness of the team and will apply to his engineers the same approach that Frank used in his time.

In other words, Mr. Robson, has gone to the trouble of finding the aerodynamic advantages and increased mechanical traction of the FW44, rather than looking for easy targets that will cause long-term damage to the team and the opportunity to expand your engineering studies. to be financed.

More than ever, F1 team salespeople need strong, powerful and inspiring imagery to sell multi-million dollar sponsorship deals, and automotive paint is paramount. Removing the paint and vinyl from the body will certainly be effective, but not desirable.

Of course having a fast car is the best option for all aspects of running a race team, but let’s make the right decisions based on actually reducing lap times and minimizing commercial appeal.”