1
Williams senior race engineer Dave Robson suspects that rival team Racing Point decided to base the RP20 on last season's Mercedes W10 because the team were in a position to be able to take risks with the new car.
When asked during Friday's test session in Barcelona if Williams ever looked at doing the same, Robson affirmed his belief that it was important for the team to continue working on the plans they have made with its own concept for 2020, the FW43.
Robson believed that the two teams are currently in two different circumstances, and assured the team would continue to work on the two-year programme it laid out starting with the FW42 last year.
"I think the two circumstances and obviously I don't want to speak on the behalf of Racing Point but are a little bit," Robson said. "For us, it was a two-year programme and I think it is important that we conduct that work.
"I don't know about them but I think it sounds like they just wanted to take a bit of a risk this year and they can afford to do that to see what happens but by doing that, they can't have just took a few photos and copied it.
"They have to have understood the concepts and I suspect, well for sure they will have learned a huge amount and at the moment, the car looks quite quick."
Robson explained how he felt a continuation of the programme was the right step forward for the team and that although he hoped for quicker results, he was sure it would help the team in the long run.
However, Robson admitted that he was 'fascinated' by Racing Point's idea for the team's 2020 challenger, but ensured that the main focus at Williams was to work on its own car and bring as much of the programme forward into the new regulations in 2021.
"For us, it was very much about learning and the process of it. We would rather have done it much more quickly," Robson added.
"It's going to have taken two years and again we hope that all of that is should play into next year's car even though the regulations are different, the principles haven't changed."
Looking from the inside in it is quite fascinating what they have chosen to do and fair play to them."
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
157,524 comments on Williams
39 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Williams
Replies (1)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
They can now, but they've come a long way to reach this point. From almost going off the grid entirely, and now they are here. If any team deserved a cash boost, especially considering what they've been able to do with that scarce cash they had earlier, it's RP. Likewise, while I don't necessarily think they are gunning for P3, if they were to contend for it I'd be really happy for them, Merc' clone or not. I guess I should be calling them Cerisedes... y'know... from the pink nuance Cerise...