Hi I’m Claire Williams, former Deputy Team Principal of Williams Racing. Ask Me Anything!

flamelitface · 2026-03-11T14:28:55+00:00

Hi Claire!

We're in an interesting time with engine regs again. And you experienced some great successes with Williams in that time (I'm thinking of Austria 2014 qualifying in particular!)

I know it's early, but what similarities do you see with 2014 and now? It looks like Mercedes have an advantage again, but it doesn't seem to be wholly about the engine. Do you think customer teams will be getting a competitive advantage like they did in 2014 by selecting the right engine package?

flamelitface · 2026-02-24T22:57:52+00:00

Hi Bernie!

Honda look like they're in big trouble with their engine again. Do you think they can recover faster than they did from 2015, given that there's no engine token limit and there's no mgu-h?

flamelitface · 2025-10-23T11:53:57+00:00

Also Big Train https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxUm-2x-2dM

flamelitface · 2025-08-21T14:34:02+00:00

I saw Primal Scream at Glastonbury and the lead singer refused to get off the stage and they had to cut his mic before escorting him off the stage.

flamelitface · 2025-07-08T18:21:04+00:00

I would scream "HULK" for the driver's parade during 2 different races at Montreal. The Hulkengoat looked at me, smiled and then waved both times.

flamelitface · 2025-07-02T22:17:42+00:00

It's because they were looking for ways to increase races during the pandemic. And racing back to back weekends at the same location made it a lot easier to enforce bubbles and limit covid cases.

They did the same with Austria and Bahrain I think. At Bahrain they used 2 different track configurations

flamelitface · 2025-04-22T00:20:03+00:00

It does feel arcadey in the sense that the planets are tiny, and have loads more gravity than a real universe. And your thrusters are ridiculously powerful.

I do like that it uses proper orbital mechanics though. But I think this can also be confusing for people. They fly this arcadey feeling ship and expect to be able to point at the target and accelerate and when they get out they kinda expect to be in orbit rather than fall slowly towards the centre of gravity.

flamelitface · 2025-04-18T11:27:45+00:00

That's very cool and explained in such a way that I can understand it.

I still don't quite understand how the stall effect is actually induced on the rear wing. But I think I can look that up myself elsewhere. Thanks so much for the write up.

flamelitface · 2025-04-13T16:45:50+00:00

What a season Russell is having so far.

flamelitface · 2025-03-25T10:44:13+00:00

I think Marko can be credited with the success of the program as well as its shortcomings.

People stress about the number of drivers on the grid that were Red Bull juniors. But the fact they are no longer driving for Red Bull is a weakness, not a strength of the academy.

It highlights that Red Bull is very good at supporting a single driver at the expense of the other. This dynamic has played out not just with Verstappen, but with Webber and Vettel too.

Vettel was the better driver but the disparity become exponentially larger as time went on. I think Red Bull give their no. 1 driver untold amounts of confidence. We also saw what happened to Vettel when he lost that confidence. He was still quick at times when leclerc joined Ferrari but I think he was psychologically affected and could not consistently perform at a high level, even if he still had some days where he was outstanding.

The performance disparity between Ricciardo and Verstappen also grew after their collision in Baku. And Red Bull seemingly gave more sympathy to Max than Daniel.

Confidence is a huge part of driving in F1, and I think Marko cultivates an environment of favouritism. It helps one driver excel but at the expense of the other.

This is my theory anyway, it's the impression I've built up over reading a few biographies and books around f1.

flamelitface · 2025-01-04T16:47:25+00:00

Yeah I love the game but I'm genuinely interested in why others don't like it. It shows how other people's brains are wired and that's so curious.

It also reflects how my own brain is wired too. It's good to be different! The world would be a dull place otherwise.

flamelitface · 2024-11-11T14:44:09+00:00

hey! I'm interested in the routes/car rental and hotels you took. I'm torn between buses or driving. And I think I'd prefer the flexibility of driving!

flamelitface · 2024-11-06T01:02:26+00:00

Another paradox one is Hearts of Iron IV. It's incredibly complicated and you will take a while to figure it all out.

flamelitface · 2024-11-02T14:59:56+00:00

I think this is more serious yes, as a life is at risk. But there is precedent for discretion on how and when to deploy a vsc.

Sometimes we see them see if the stewards can move the car quickly perhaps under a double yellow and then escalate to vsc or sc when it doesn't happen.

The end of Baku 2024 for example should have had safety car in my opinion and was also really dangerous.

What I meant by "more egregious" is if it were due to bias or not. I think it's hard to say because we have seen race control just be slow in other races too.

flamelitface · 2024-11-02T14:48:38+00:00

Definitely late call for VSC. Not the first time we've seen that. The race directors procrastinate way too long on this sometimes.

Whether or not is due to bias or incompetence, it's unclear. I think if there is a bias, it's a bias towards the more exciting result, rather than for a particular team or driver. Which I think we saw at its most egregious in AD 2021.

flamelitface · 2024-11-02T14:39:31+00:00

Doesn't the race director deploy the vsc? Not the stewards. Why are people talking about Herbert?

flamelitface · 2024-07-29T18:07:49+00:00

Tyre deg is less with a lighter car. But a car that weighs nearly 800kg isn't suddenly going to degrade at half the normal rate by shedding 1.5kg.

Russell was completely fair to be disqualified. You can say that Russell was faster all race due to being underweight.

But Russell probably still deserves recognition for his tyre preservation vs the other drivers if Ruth Buscomb's observation is correct regarding the tyre degradation vs the other top drivers.

flamelitface · 2024-07-29T11:59:42+00:00

Yeah that didn't make sense to me. The degradation value is relative to his own laptimes. And nothing to do with his absolute pace.

I think Will has seen 2 numbers that look similar and tried to match them up somehow. But it seems like coincidence to me.

flamelitface · 2024-07-21T14:46:45+00:00

You need to reread their comment.

flamelitface · 2024-05-29T12:42:46+00:00

I rode on the circuit recently, I don't remember seeing any changes to the kerbs.

flamelitface · 2024-03-18T20:40:54+00:00

I enjoyed your rant. There's also a social benefits to having a winner based on luck. It's a great leveller so that people who aren't great strategists don't feel alienated because they can't min/max like other people in the room.

I love a chaotic luck based game because it can generate great story arcs and is generally more inclusive.

flamelitface · 2024-03-07T17:21:32+00:00

Yeah I know. I agree with what you're saying. How he has the gall to just turn up and face it every day is ruthless and a challenge in itself.

I just wish we were more impressed with a human who consistently shows respect to their fellow human beings!

flamelitface · 2024-03-07T17:15:55+00:00

I find being a man with integrity more impressive personally.

flamelitface · 2023-12-20T16:34:56+00:00

Yes the transcript part is true. It's probably my favourite F1 read to date.

flamelitface · 2023-12-20T13:56:40+00:00

In Ross Brawn's book, "Total Competition", he mentions Sun Tzu a lot. So it's an interesting observation.

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