It was a very British way of outlining a setback. Williams declared missing the opening day of testing “not the end of the world”, but that particular announcement was the second of a (so far) trio of delays for the Grove-based team.
It was supposed to shake down its FW42 last week but delays – thought to originate from suppliers – meant that was abandoned, while its subsequent plans to test on Monday, and then Tuesday, were ultimately scrapped.
Formula 1 testing is so limited that Williams is already facing a mountain to climb. In reality, it’s struggling to even see where the mountain is at the moment.
Williams endured a woeful 2018 campaign amid fundamental aerodynamic flaws and accepted that it needed a deep-rooted analysis of its entire operation, part of which resulted in the exit of a few key figures.
It scored points at only two of the 21 Grands Prix, finished with a tally of seven points, and was often cut adrift of its opponents at the rear of the field. Sauber, which started the year in the same ballpark, was in a different league by Abu Dhabi.
It would be unrealistic to expect those teams to be fighting over the same piece of tarmac in 2019.
Williams’ pre-season programme has already been reduced from eight to six days, meaning the checklist gets more condensed, and some items will have to be delayed or even scrapped from the list.
As a comparison, Racing Point was one of only a few teams not to carrying out a shakedown and Sergio Perez completed only 30 laps – suggesting it regarded test day one as a chance to test all of the systems on its RP19.
Several teams were able to carry out those checks last week – Mercedes, Red Bull and Toro Rosso on Wednesday, Alfa Romeo on Thursday, Haas Friday, Renault Saturday and Ferrari Sunday. Most of those teams hit the ground running with aplomb on Monday, with very few problems to report up and down the grid. The reliability, even accounting for relative stability in the regulations, is astonishing and often under-reported. These machines are amazing.
Williams, meanwhile, is far behind. Assuming it can get its car ready for Wednesday it has drivers whom may not hit the ground running so quickly as their opponents – Robert Kubica has been out of the game for eight years and George Russell is a rookie. For all of their talents, and occasional 2018 runs, a period of acclimatisation, and getting used to new systems and procedures, is a natural development.
It’s a sad state of affairs for a team that has been on a gradual decline through the hybrid era, and which is one of the proudest and most historic on the grid. Fans of the sport can only hope that this is the lowest moment and not another step on the decline.
