The official three car F1 thread ***Approved by Bernie Ecclestone***

Bernie needs to give more back to the sport, he has made billions from it and its about time he stopped taking so much. He does not need the money, he cannot spend what he has its a complete joke.

To be fair, Bernie doesn't get much of the money any more. The real money is taken home by the rights holders. CVC has had a return on investment of 751,3% since they made their move in 2006. What other businesses rewards their investors like that, while they take the piss on their assets?

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Well who ever it is they need to see that no teams equals no money.

Makes me wonder how close Williams did come to going.

Williams were at some kind of risk the moment they split with BMW and started their slide down and past the mid-field. But they've done well to keep finding new areas of investment.

What worried me about Williams is will they still be up there next year?

They have done a great job this year, but they also done a great job in 2012 then had their worst year in 2013.

Will be interesting.

The problem Williams had was they never cracked the exhaust blown diffuser, to the point where they removed it in Brazil or Abu Dhabi (in preparation for this year) and it improved the car. They'd blindly stuck with it throughout 2013, whereas if they had removed it they might have got a few more points.

Clearly they won't be as close to Mercedes as they have been this year on a few occasions, and equally Red Bull should never have been allowed to get as far ahead of them as they have, but it's clearly been a stabilising year (as clearly shown by Austria, where they could (and probably should) have won, yet were intent on only ensuring Ferrari get ahead of them).

They've made the best of a new set of regulations, leapfrogged Force India and McLaren using the same engine, and seem to have solidified the team structure. They won't win a title in the era of hundreds of millions of pounds being thrown into teams, but hopefully the odd win here and there will surface and they could have a few years similar to Lotus in the past couple of seasons.

marcl Wrote:
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> What worried me about Williams is will they still
> be up there next year?
>
> They have done a great job this year, but they
> also done a great job in 2012 then had their worst
> year in 2013.
>
> Will be interesting.

That is a worry, and the next couple of seasons are going to tell us much more about the recent restructuring of the team than this year has.

As you've pointed out, in recent years Williams have followed up a relatively respectable season with an embarrasingly disastrous shambles. And so if the new team structure is to prove itself they have to at least maintain this year's podium form into 2015.

I'm not going to to make any rash predictions about their future competitiveness.. But I do feel that there has been a new better and more confident vibe since Symonds and Smedley joined. They seem to have settled in well and given the team some good direction. It's no longer a blind panic and this has seen the team not only get on terms with Force India and Mclaren this year but maintain and develop their form throughout the season.

It'll be a challenge to rise to championship form, as there are teams with more investment and deeper resources around them.. Merc, Red Bull and Ferrari. But we can't write them off either as Williams is a team which has never had as much financial clout as the likes of McLaren and Ferrari but that didn't stop them taking the fight to them in the past.

Overall, this has easily been Williams strongest season since 2003.