- 18 May 10, 20:20#200001
Agreed with most of the above except that McLaren were never in the doldrums as such, certainly nowhere even close to the extent of the fall from grace Williams have endured. They had a break in actually winning races between the last race in 1993 and the first race of 1997 - an exact break of 3 seasons, but in seasons '94, '95 & '96 McLaren still amassed 16 podiums - (8 in '94, 2 in '95 and 6 in '96). So it was really only one terrible year - 1995 - if you can call it that given the Mansell situation and the fact that his replacement was Mark Blundell. Not a comparable situation at all to the Williams one.
On the issue at hand, as others have said, it really is simply due to the phase F1 has gone through with big manufacturer driven teams and the linked massive increases in budgets required to compete at the top. Whilst I don't think Williams will ever be the force they once were (and genuinely worry what will happen to the team itself when Sir Frank Williams reitires - that can't be too far on the horizon), I do think they have the capabilities and experience to be a credible upper mid-field team, winning the occasional race again in the not too distant future.
Tyrrell were at the top of F1 for a number of years, then fell to the midfield and worse and didn't recover. McLaren were in the doldrums for a number of years in the 90s, but not as long as Williams have been.
If manufacturers leave F1, then Williams could be in a good position. If. Also I think it's possible that Williams could one day come up with a Brawn style innovation that gives them a sizeable advantage in a year.
Agreed with most of the above except that McLaren were never in the doldrums as such, certainly nowhere even close to the extent of the fall from grace Williams have endured. They had a break in actually winning races between the last race in 1993 and the first race of 1997 - an exact break of 3 seasons, but in seasons '94, '95 & '96 McLaren still amassed 16 podiums - (8 in '94, 2 in '95 and 6 in '96). So it was really only one terrible year - 1995 - if you can call it that given the Mansell situation and the fact that his replacement was Mark Blundell. Not a comparable situation at all to the Williams one.
On the issue at hand, as others have said, it really is simply due to the phase F1 has gone through with big manufacturer driven teams and the linked massive increases in budgets required to compete at the top. Whilst I don't think Williams will ever be the force they once were (and genuinely worry what will happen to the team itself when Sir Frank Williams reitires - that can't be too far on the horizon), I do think they have the capabilities and experience to be a credible upper mid-field team, winning the occasional race again in the not too distant future.
Favourite racing series: F1, Indycar, NASCAR, GP2, F3, Formula E, Trophee Andros, DTM, WTCC, BTCC, World Endurance... etc. etc.
