Claire Williams made an extensive review of all the news about F1 and especially the situation of his team. Williams just received that Martini will not be his prinipal partner for the next season.
In addition, the press conference has started with one of the hot topics of the week. The forecast of snow for this Wednesday has made several teams move to try to extend the first week of testing until Friday. The main problem is that Williams has filming day this Friday and it does not seem that Claire has much desire to give the day so easily: “We have not been asked about that possibility. We know that there is the possibility of extending the tests until Friday. Today we have to see how the hours progress and then have a conversation. I do not think all the teams want to extend these tests, just a couple who I know. For us filming day is important and we could also extend one more day next week. Nothing is official.”
He also confirmed the news that leapt early in the morning: “Yes, Martini leaves us at the end of the year. It is the end of our contract. We have been negotiating with them to extend the contract for months. He has been a very important sponsor for us since joining the team. It has been a very successful relationship. We thank them for his support.”
Williams’ driver lineup has also been the subject of several questions, starting with Sirotkin: “I think he will impress people this year. Pity that yesterday he could not drive too much because of the weather. He will demonstrate his talent and is very close with the team. He is extremely intelligent and will help us to improve as a team”, answered Williams, who did not want to disclose if Wehrlein was a real option to fill the seat that Massa left: “We had many names on the table and in Abu Dhabi we did some tests, the largest we’ve ever done to decide our driver line-up. I will not say names, I do not want to go into that.”
He did speak of another proper name, Robert Kubica, whom he has said that he will participate in some Friday sessions: “Everyone was excited with his possible comeback. Since his accident he has worked hard to be able to return. For us it will have a very important role helping young people. By 2019 we’ll see.”
On the performance of the car on the first day of testing, Claire said this: “I am quite happy. I do not want to use the word surprise, but we had a good day. We had good reliability, we checked the car, we did some tests … it was a good day”, affirmed the head of the team who established progress as the main objective for 2018: “The goal should always be to win, but… The objective for this year is progress. We have Paddy Lowe who this year has been able to have a great impact on the car. It’s going to be tough, with Force India, now Mclaren and Renault … Approaching the front is the goal.”
Williams dared three controversial issues involving the current F1. The first one, the equality of engines: “When the new regulation of the engines came out, we chose Mercedes and we had not fought for an equality between engines. But I think equality, for the benefit of the sport, I think it would be good more equality”, said Williams who also covered the race calendar: “I think we are reaching the limit of races in the calendar. Asking people to leave their families more than 25 times a year is not good. I do not think the relationship with the fans is closer if there are 30 races because the fans want something more exclusive. 25 is the limit if not we are already”.
Finally, the possible proposal to create an exclusive parallel championship for women: “I believe that women must compete with men. Why separate them? It has always been like this in this sport. There are already many sports that women and men compete in different competitions, so why do we want to take a step back, creating a women’s championship?”, answered Claire Williams.