The shocking details behind an F1 team’s painful revolution
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- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
- The way Williams has started F1 2024 has laid bare the painful consequences of its much needed revolution.
It’s no secret that Williams has been battling with under-invested facilities and an outdated culture for many years, with claims of the team being 20 years behind its rivals in some areas.
But we had no idea just how desperate its situation looked ahead of the new season as team principal James Vowles and chief technical officer Pat Fry tried to get the team to leap towards the required modern standards.
The depths of a brutal winter for Williams are quite shocking, and the impact it has had on its point-less start to the new season is real - costing the team laptime and valuable cost cap resources.
If this is all sounding a bit dramatic, we promise we aren’t hamming it up. It surprised us when Vowles and Fry opened up about all this.
0:00 Intro
1:14 Breaking old cycles
2:54 Car built in Excel?!
4:43 'Never known anything like it'
6:44 How the FW46 was hurt
8:27 A necessary pain
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#f1 #formulaone #f12024 #formula1 #grandprix #therace #williams #microsoft #alexalbon #microsoftexcel - Sport
And despite all this, they built a better car than the works Alpine team
I came here to write this. Luckily it’s already the top comment 😂😂
as well as Sauber.
hilarious
They use Notepad to keep track of parts
@@Rainaman- And Clippie as their main AI system
If Williams is using Excel, Alpine must be using MS Paint.
Underrated comment
That is actually funny😂😂😂
lmao 🤣🤣🤣
For real 😂
😂😂😂😂😂
Vowles and Fry walking into Williams office like
“Bitch you live like this?”
Smells like broke in here!
But not before saying "good morning" to every single person individually.
Williams built a car better in the high speed corners than the Mercedes using an Exel spreadsheet
V = 500 km/h. There, I made a better car than RedBull in the straights
And yet Williams has not won a championship since 1997. Their last podium was in 2021 and hasn’t won a race since 2012.🤷♂️😂
@Uranswer-yu5kp they use Maercedes engine, yet they are wayyy faster in top speed
…in a cave, with a box of scraps!
@@notorious_nrsa revert to my previous post.
Williams: Putting the formula into Formula1
At least, putting the formula into Excel 😂
This NEEDS to be their tagline 😂😂😂 excellent
"Excel, it's James"
Formula A1
James Vowles is still a great thing to happen to Williams. It would become a solid midfield car in a few years now
I don’t think vowels will be there in a few years. I think by 2027 he’ll be off back to Mercedes to replace Toto
@@christiansimmons630 Toto is not leaving Mercedes anytime soon lol.
Toto owns a big part of Mercedes no way he leaves@@christiansimmons630
@@kengxi his current contract runs until the end of 2026, so vowles taking over for 2027 is very plausible
@@christiansimmons630 he owns a 3rd of the team he isnt leaving soon
Don't underestimate how powerful Microsoft Excel is :P
Well, it depends with what "digital" system they replaced it with. I can think of some software that might be a downgrade. *cough*SAP*cough*
And Vowles comes from Mercedes where they have technical partnership with them. On the other hand, I have never heard about an SAP implementation that took less than 2 years, so that would be unrealistic. But if they did, than I can understand why they would call it a horror winter.
@@vanbalzup6481 yeah but you need a newey behind that pencil to get that kind of performance
not just anyone can do it
Clip art baby
@@jahrazkal try running a billion-dollar company on Excel vs SAP then 😉
If SAP was worse than Excel, corporate would cut costs and use Excel instead
@@vanbalzup6481ok boomer
I have much respect for Vowels, he will be the best and biggest upgrade to Williams in the past 20 years...more important than driver line-up. Good luck James!
Yes. Gotta love the AEIOUs
@@tyvekhomewrap9164 and sometimes Y
@@tyvekhomewrap9164😂😂😂
Gotta love sometimes Y
He's taken on some job fr
6:24 Sargeant inspecting his earwax and then realizing he is being filmed is gold
At this rate, Sargeant will be the last American driver in F1 for a long time.
@@ChadSimpliciohe should've gotten another year of F2, he was rushed up way too quickly
He’s digging deep to find any last little bit of talent lol
It's hard not to root for Williams.
Yep. A guy who came in 21st place in a 20 driver field.
They built the car in Excel 97, with an old Compaq laptop running a not activated Windows 8.
windows ME
In 1997 Williams were world champions!
😆
@@cusernament When computers were just becoming computers! Can you say 400mb processor?
I mean why bother upgrading? So your computer goes even slower and has more popups when you try to use excel?
Excel is not a database, Excel is not a database, Excel is not a database....
You can make it into a database if you like to hurt yourself mentally
Wouldn’t they have at least used Access?
It's a very annoying word processor
But it has tables 😂
James: I want to query our database.
Williams: The computer says no
I think James Vowels is just what Williams need. His days at Brawn likely taught him how to do so much with so little. He’s worked with and learned management genius like Ross Brawn and Toto. He’s honest and I respect his soft spoken candor and I look forward to where he’ll take the team
Don't forget, he was part of BAR/Honda and their transition from middling to polesitters and race winners
Is there anyone who ISN'T a fan of James Vowels? I spend 20 years as a fairly team-agnostic F1 fan then became a Williams fan from his first Vowels Verdict.
It's Vowles not Vowels..
@@Gepstra James Consonants
@@Gepstra Autocorrect got me... I usually catch it before posting...
I have seen this in most businesses. Antiquated systems, processes and software. They avoid updates to save money and/or because people are used to what they have, then it gets to be a bit too much work, needing genuine CapEx but the timing would be bad, then it just snowballs like crazy and the business goes through a make or break overhaul.
On the software side, we (as a species) REALLY need to fund "Free and Open Source Software" substantially better, so we have decent, long-term software platforms for people and organisations.
More likely that Stroll will have a season without crashing into someone, than the software industry allowing that to happen though.
Hey! Don't knock Stroll, as he made the greatest comment crashing into a wall last time out😂😂
@@N1NJAKIDD He knocks himself by being such a clutz. There were a few names I was toying with to be the butt of the joke, it just so happened to be Stroll (cos the angst I felt when he went out in Bahrain, having picked him as my "talent driver" on "Grid Rivals" fantasy league).
If he can do me dirty like that, only seems fair, right? Right! 😬
I've seen both sides of the rails unfortunately, extremely forward looking Tech Corps which see value in CapEx and have the talent to deliver it, and Government Depts run by the incredibly out of touch, spending around an electoral cycle with the majority OpEx, attempting to patch holes and failures in historically poorly scoped and delivered projects. No-one fails harder than Governments when it comes value in Tech spend.
@@tyrantworm7392 Of course, can't properly fund civil service departments, that goes against neoliberalism. Gotta privatize them, but to convince people to accept that, gotta run into the ground first.
It's governments that would most benefit from FOSS though, because not much changes and FOSS can have VERY long-term "support" (as in security and feature patches) and they're able to customise to their desired needs (and keep tweaking overtime to catch what was initially missed). Those government contracts are profitable though, so, not allowed.
"It's just the way we've always done it" is a very powerful and dangerous mentality.
The fact that a simple spreadsheet can do so much is precisely why it is anything but useless. It’s just not optimal, and F1 needs optimal.
If this was built on excel then alpine’s must be done on an etch a sketch.
Done on a stone tablet probably 😂
It’s all the more astonishing that there have been other TPs that have come in and either seen this issue and had resistance to change or haven’t seen it and accepted it as part and parcel of how Williams does things.
James Vowles deserves huge credit for not accepting this really poor standard of working, new systems and smarter ways of working will only benefit Williams in the long term even though there has to be short term pain.
It’s a shame that Mercedes has lost him as I think they’d benefit from Vowles in charge rather than Toto
Scene 1 (interior): Vowles walks into a technical meeting at Williams HQ.
Vowles: “Okay so I wanna start by seeing your ERP and performance development.”
Engineer: opens an excel spreadsheet.
Vowles: … “what the actual fuck”
James Vowles needs to cut his teeth in team management before he takes over from Toto. Leading the strategy department (something he was rather good at) is not the same as being the man coordinating the department leaders. I have little doubt that Vowles will be leading Mercedes in time, but he needs to prove himself as an organisation leader at Williams first.
@@dynamo1796
Scene 2: Vowles calls a meeting of the production and procurement department.
Vowles: Guys I want to know parts and orders, I need to know what we’ve got in stock and what parts of the car are we sub contracting out. Do you reckon you could get that to me by Friday?
Production and Procurement Managers: Sure not a problem, just want to clarify, when you said Friday did you mean a Friday this year or are you cool with us getting to you by the end of 2045?
Vowles: WOW!
To be fair to them, aside from Capito who was discussing stuff like this at the time, none of those other bosses at the level of investment behind them with Dorilton that they have now
“other TPs”
Vowles is only the third team principal in the team’s entire history. During the Claire era the team was counting pennies until the Dorilton takeover and maybe only for Jost Capito you could say that he should’ve done something.
Using Excel for those purposes was out of date 19 years ago when I was working at Red Bull!
The fact that Williams was 20 years behind is still crazy....James and Pat would improve the team hopefully!
I’ve a lot of respect for Vowles - he’s walked into a team that’s stuck in the past, stuck digging for pennies and stuck scraping for marginal performance.
Vowles and Fry have the right idea - do all the painful rework all at once, realize it will cost a lot of money and work and will be detrimental to the car. Get the pain done and over with and then start using it as a foundation to expand and move upwards.
A pretty strong indictment of Frank Williams and his legacy. He stayed around way too long.
in some places*
It's actually quite impressive that with such outdated structure, they still managed to stay quite competitive except 2019
Well, they finished bottom several times. But 2017 and 2023 are miracle results on this conditions.
Say what?
Other than 2019, they came last in 2018, 2020 and 2022 in the last 6yrs. Not what I would call competitive.
In the late 90's, my old boss worked for Reynard (on the site of Mercedes F1, via a Bankruptcy Auction). He was the guy running the computer systems Williams is now setting up. 25 years ago and they were on their second such system.
Microsoft missed a trick sponsoring Team Enstone over Williams the past 10 or so years. 😂
As an Alpine fan, (there are like 5 of us) I really hope Williams have a brighter future ahead of them than Alpine do. Good luck Team Grove!
You may be few and, actually, you really are, but to be honest you lot are a fairly likeable bunch of individuals. I've yet to come across a rude Alpine/Renault fan. I hope your team gets in a better shape internally soon, some things hurt a little as a fan, and I know well being a Williams supporter since 2008 and fan since 2014 😅
I too am an alpine fan however their recent livery is very ugly hope they can do a mclaren 2023
alpine livery in 2021: beautiful
alpine livery in 2024: ugly af@@jathiyakhan720
Hell yeah, I found one of my 4 fellow Alpine fans! *High-five*.
How can you have a manufacturing business without an ERP system? If they are using spreadsheets now, next year's car will be built by spreadsheet too. It would take around 18 months to design and implement an ERP system and then you have to train people, or get people with experience in. This is a medium long term problem
Williams implementing such a system is no news, they've been talking about it openly since mid last year. Behind closed doors I'm sure they were already working on it since the 2023 season even started
I'm shocked they didn't implement such a system after the farce of 2019 when the car was in bits as pre-season testing started , then when it was assembled it had some illegal parts , and was horribly slow.
I once worked for a company that, 20 years in, was forced to update its antiquated ERP to SAP. Worst. Experience. Ever.
Yup, it's mad. Hence Mercedes and SAP strategic partnership. It's going to be a painful implementation.
Do we know what ERP direction they have gone down? agree in the implantation of ERP and there are some excellent "simple" interface options out there that would suit a F1 type environment. agree these day's the off the shelf ERP solutions out there in the market are defiantly a more logical path to go. but it's only as good as the staff inputs. I actually think rigorous efficient Cad Data management is the most effective tool, was Williams using Teamcenter in their NX suite? and a spreadsheet to manage inventory
The whole Excel revelation getting such focus is pretty funny considering how incredibly many companies still use this barebones way of managing their processes. Sure, you'd think it's not something you'll ever see at the highest level of motorsports anymore, but statistically, I think it fits.
The problem is less about Excel and more about the fact that they weren't planning and tracking all the mentioned deficets, at all. Obviously Excel is not fit for purpose and shouldn't be used for all of those things, but the fundamental problems go much deeper than the software that was being used.
Now, the biggest problem won't be the systems, it will be the personnel and their adaptability. THAT will make or break their future success or at least how long it will take for them to "catch up" so to say.
OMG. Excel bogs down after 10,000 cells. Imagine having that as your database. Nightmare.
Do they not know data model in excel? Like even that thing can handle up to a million+ cells.
Completely normal in engineering
Planty of by all means pro CAD/CAM software is essentially a graphic representation of excel that runs in the background
(and CAD/CAM software often rly hates huge assemblies, doesn't matter how expensive it is)
Red bull uses NX it does use Excel
Merc uses CATIA again it does use Excel
SOLIDWORKS also uses it and so on
lol what, I'm handling 1m+ cells on a daily basis, ever heard of data models? Excel for sure can handle the data for a f1 team and that is not the point of the video, it's just a bad format for a f1 teams operations, the title is there for clickbait.
@@CzornyLisek This is the maybe being misrepresented here by The Race and by others commenting - the car isn't so much being *designed* in Excel, it sounds like it's was used are their database and inventory system, which *is* crazy at that scale. Excel as inputs for various individual design software isn't so ridiculous, nor as a database for someone only needing the essentials, but for a company like Williams with everything you'd want to track and manage is nuts.
@@CzornyLisek What do you mean? Do they use calculus and data representation as a spreadsheet sheet or are you talking about data input/output formats?
Cheers!
If James pulls this off, i want him to write a book about it.
FW46: made from Microsoft Excel 97
RB20: made from drawing book
Alpine must have built their POS with a Commodore 64 based on it's performance
The Commodore 64 was a great computer, my friend.
Nah…..ZX80 for sure. They run their simulator using an Atari 2600
Every engineer knows excel is the best
Yup even video games are built on excel in 2024.
Yes but it's not enough to store all documentation of a collosal operation such as a Formula 1 team you'll need at least tools like Jira for requirements and tasks and SharePoint as a documentation base
@@yesitsme-qr1nt Jira is a good time management and task management tool, but absolutely not for requirements, testing and documents archivation. IBM Doors or PTC Codebeamer, or even Siemens Teamcenter are much better options
I work day in day out on accountancy spreadsheets. This spreadsheet covers a specific part of our business mainly being the tracking of invoicing from external suppliers when providing parts and or services. This spreadsheet is for a single specific area in the business where I work. This works alongside other accounting and invoicing systems.
Having a spreadsheet that runs across an entire advanced F1 team as a business with over 20,000 parts tracked on it. That is Fucking ridiculous you can not run an F1 team or any major business like that. No wonder Vowles went on the warpath to get rid of it.
@@teabagtowers3823 Agreed, Excel is not a database!
When I think of an F1 team I've always assumed they are all running the most up to date IT infrastructure and code / management since most teams have partnered with large IT / SaaS companies. I wonder how many other back-half of the grid teams are still relying on massively legacy systems. I've also assumed that all teams are using tons of algorithms running in real time to make strategy calls but I now I wonder how many are or to what extent the teams are running these. Seems like these kind of infrastructure updates would be key to making any sort of progress at moving up the grid.
Also, how is it that the Team Principal was the one to make the decision to move away from this excel spreadsheet? Who is in charge of managing these systems and why were they not calling for these updates a long time ago?
You apparently are not familiar with the British tradition of stubbornly sticking with the old ways.
It'd be funny if underfunding IT was highly correlated with poor F1 car performance.
Vowels seems to be slowly but surely turning the ship at Williams, really excited to see how they improve and progress up the grid🙏
Don't underestimate MS Excel. Of course it's archaic and certainly not the way to manage the parts for an f1 car, but it's a sort of swiss army knife, it can do everything even though it's not the best at any of it. As a civil engineer I can guarantee you that many buildings were built using excel spreadsheets.
Best of luck to all the hardworking people at Williams. I hope they all get to see their efforts pay off.
That must have been a hell winter "break", but I think that in the long term, Williams will be better off for it and I'm looking forward to seeing them towards the front end of the grid. Massive respect to all of those who put in all the work. More power to them and best of luck!
Unreal, I don't know why they were still using Excel, when clearly they should have evolved and been stuck using an Access database! 😅😂🤣
Can't beat an Access database! 😂
Access is the worst application ever invented.
Convenience and ease of training. I asked the same thing when the company I worked for implemented a similar style of inventory for their components (electronics). They said “everyone knows how to use excel”.
@philipbarton3456 True, yet most people can't unlock the true power of Excel. And there are so many good options out there.
@@JimmyJinIA oh I’m aware. I’ve got loads of experience doing SQL..and that’s why I asked them why the heck excel in the first place. I even knew of free inventory apps and web apps that would do a better job. But nope they wanted excel.
I wonder if that was an issue Jos Capito had, but nobody listened to him because he didn’t have loads of experience in F1 so the veterans at Williams laughed him off. There were reports that part of his problems with Williams were cultural. He was an outsider from F1 so they didn’t want to hear it (or he couldn’t explain the benefits of it to the team). Vowles on the other hand can. 20 years of experience and multiple championships have much more weight.
Actually it's quite a miracle (and an achievement) to run a company on an Excel sheet instead of an ERP system. Remarkable and insane!
I think Williams 2024 season is going to look a lot like McLarens 2023 season. Bumpy start but will be genuinely competing with the top teams by the end of the season. Vowels has a plan, he just needs the time, money and resources to carry it out.
This must be the reason that there's only one Williams car for the race this week
Implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, like the other teams already have in place for years, is often regarded as undergoing open heart surgery while running a marathon at the same time.
Then again, if the alternative is having a fatal heart attack mid-marathon...
@@ParasocialCatgirl Although their is a risk of a fatal hard attack and the team completely collapsing, the alternative is more like becoming too slow to keep up the marathon in the first place. Which basically describes Williams in the past two decades.
In my experience there are two types of companies: those that use Excel for everything, and those with dozens of Excel workarounds for their terribly implemented ERP system.
Fascinating and very informative, thank you.
This is actually a really good advertisement for Excel.
no it’s not if you watch the video
@@kashmir883yeah but they built a better car than the alpine works team and sauber despite using excel
@@kashmir883yes it is if you watch the video. The fact that a team can even function with that program at the core is a miracle
Great Video as always.... Thank you 😄
Great video. Really enjoyed that. Thanks!
It makes me feel a bit better knowing that our student design team is more organized than williams lmao
but goddamn I don't want to imagine how bad it is at alpine right now
I work in a leading asset servicing company and we use Excel too :( I need to speak to management...
Shows how good the drivers are if they get points or close to it in a Williams.
Driver*
@@Leith_Crowtherlmfao
That was a good video. Covered all the bases very well. I really liked learning why Williams was struggling so much, given the antiquity to their internal processes. It's fascinating how small but significant changes like that can affect performance. And it's even more fascinating that they are running 7th in the constructors. The car is good enough for that, and given they are taking steps to improve that lack of technical efficiency, it seems like they will make a comback maybe 2026!? Good video the Race! Brief and efficient 👍🏾
Just don't complain about Adrian and Ted's notebooks...😂.
Adrian probably has a CAD draftsboy whose hole job is to put the drawing into cad for the other engineers to test in cfd and correlate into the wind tunnel.
@ergoproxy-gx2cq Oh without doubt at some point it is digitized. Those conversations to clarify the idea with Adrian would be magical for any engineer.
@@JimmyJinIA those draftsmen probably hold enough aero secrets they learned from Newey to warrant a guard detail 😂
Damn, I want Williams to succeed so so much. You just can't not love this team at the moment
Good for Williams !!! Its hard to see and hear about these struggles but it looks like the spirit of Frank came back to the team over the winter! They will be better for it and I am truly hopeful and happy for the team.
I know they had little investment but god Claire Williams really did a shocking job there.
This is really awkward to watch after the team announcing they’re giving Logan’s car to Alex because they don’t have three chassis’ in AUS
I need a James Vowles in my work, most operations stuff we do in PAPER and PEN. I feel in 1990 everytime i go in the warehouse.
You’d be surprised how many big companies still only use Excel in 2024 but don’t underestimate what you can do with Excel especially with Power BI added
Excel is useful for certain bits and pieces (rough data exploration, making ad-hoc basic charts etc.), but its not a database.....
And power BI is a whole other platform that can take in Excel data, but really should be hooked to a database / data warehouse
Unbelievable that a company of this type can have no Enterprise Resource Planning system.
I really can't believe it!
Every half decent engineering company has ERP
I feel like F1 has to much ERP if you know what I mean.
@0Synergy it's the wrong interest for you then.
F1 is a technical competition with a sporting element. It is also a marketing machine with massive financial basis.
ERP optimises activities.
If you don't appreciate optimisation then you can't appreciate ANY sport or competition.
You should follow a mediocre activity such as knitting or counting busses.
@@procatprocat9647 It was a joke ERP also means: Erotic Role Play.
Excel used in conjunction with PowerBI can be very powerful. But it can’t do everything.
Nothing wrong with excel. It’s used in every type of business either as a main document or a basis for more sophisticated and automated systems
i like to imagine that that excel spreadsheet was first created by newey and head in the early 90‘s when it was considered cutting edge technology…
Claires gift to F1 is the gift that keeps on giving!
Claire was at Williams for 6 years total and oversaw the best years Williams had since the BMW days. She was by no means a genius, but the team had already been doomed
Bit harsh to pin it all on Claire. This system is 20 years out of date so that's on Frank and Patrick Head too
This sort of transition requires outsiders to shake the tree.
I’d love to see the Williams with a MS excel sponsorship deal 😂 Seriously they are such a great team of individuals to build that car using that system. Cant wait to see what they do with modern infrastructure!
Amazing content too! Top drawer stuff 🎉
I knew of this issue a while back, an ERP system sounds dull, but is a must for a company of this size. Working with excel sheets for such applications, is the same as if you were still working with a type writer 13 years ago. Such methods just do not cut it anymore.
In the 90s Wiiliams was so willing to try out new technology and was constantly trying to evolve to gain performance, kinda crazy that they are now so far behind the other teams in terms of technology. I guess it just shows that whatever made this team great back then is long gone.
Seems like vowles might just be the right person to turn this around, hope they can manage this mess.
Excellent, highly informative video
Now we know why they didn't bring a 3rd chassis to Australia. They don't have one, it's hidden under a pile of dirty rags at a shop in England, or someone left it in a Melbourne hotel room. Brilliant logistics.
It's amazing that Jost Capito didn't change anything just what Vowles did.
And the next amazing thing is what they've done with car for 2023
Last week it was HR, this week it excel spreadsheets. Next week it will be how the change in janitorial staff has affected 2026 helmet visor development.
6:24 - Logan picking something from his ear and looking at it. Gold.
Red Bull/Aston: We use KDB+/Q with AWS
Williams: We use Excel and VBA on our local machines
A family owned business run by the daughter for many years with little success and pay for drive drivers , what do they expect, family members mean well but are just to close to the team to often take big risks or to upgrade, I wish them well, Alex had some fantastic drives last year, and this year has shown what a great talent he now is.
I’m super proud of Williams. As an F1 enthusiast you can’t just not root for them. After years of conservative practice under Claire Williams at last they have a competent merit at being a modern F1 team.
Also as a former industrial designer and production designer, yeah production management systems is super important and my old company went through a similar revamping after years of personal turnover and had to relearn all that again. I can imagine the sleepless nights, but of course worse.
ERP in a spreadsheet. Some Excel warrior must be proud....
EXCEL IS NOT A DATABASE
Thinking Excel can't do exactly the "parts tracking" problem that you outline says more about that person's Excel limitations than it does Excel's limitations.
It can't? Take a regular business for example. You need software that can be updated automatically eg it' knows how much of something is in stock. Super.arkets do this eg something is sold it updates. Excel doesn't do this.
Vowles has been at Williams since Feb 2023, and he was surprised over the winter at their inefficiencies? Why didn't he _start_ with this? The very first question he should have asked is _how_ did they miss the start of testing in 2019, and what's been done to correct that.
20K rows? you're underestimating the might of Excel. If Williams engineers or logistics can't create a good Excel workbook with 20k rows, I have another news for James. add to that, Excel can integrate directly with databases/systems to simplify reporting/tracking
However, they were using Excel for a completely inappropriate use case.
Excel isn't a database, and should not be used as a database.
5:25 Now that drive to survive episode all makes sense when they missed the first day of testing, losing track of parts and not having nuts for the wheels etc.
Vowles has easily become my favorite of the team principals because of his pure honesty and commitment to making this team great again. He’s made huge steps to bring this team back to life and also just seems so kind while doing it all.
If Williams managed to build their care in this absolute mess, imagine what they'll be capable of when they have equal systems and equipment with the top 5
After hearing this, my question is: wth was Jost Capito doing at Williams F1 when he was there? He should have enough experience from being CEO of McLaren and Head of Motorsport for VW to identify that mess and improve it. It's no surprise that the floor of the Williams looked very underdeveloped last year. James Vowles and Pat Fry are making Williams a lot stronger.
Thought the same thing. What the hell was Capito doing during his tenure at Williams?! How did he not sound the alarm bells after his first season with the team?
My thoughts exactly, and Clarie as well. It seems such an obvious area for improvement. And yet they have made a decent car. Imagine when engineers can actually focus on engineering.
I think they had problems trying to convince the higher ups in investing and doing the work to update their systems, that is pretty difficult on itself and if the process is done wrong could end in lost money, time and even your job. I think with James they felt more secure in the transition because of his experience and name, that's why they are doing it now.
The more I listen to interviews from James Vowles and hear news about the changes going on in hte team the more I believe Williams will see enormous steps forward in the years to come. It would not surprise me if they start fighting at the front in a few years.
It will still take time but Vowles looks like a truly impressive leader.
Classic moment of (mis)using Excel as database. I'm certain they could also build a CAD system or wind tunnel simulator with Excel.
Go back to 2014, the last season Williams looked semi-competitive. 2014 and 2015, Williams finished p3 in the WCC, solely on the strength of the all powerful Mercedes hybrid engine. Basically, that 80+ hp advantage allowed Williams to bring a tractor made in their inefficient factory, and compete in f1.
They didn't go backwards over the last ten years, they were artificially propped up for a couple of years when every engine supplier who wasn't Mercedes was caught flat footed.
It sounds like Williams greatest asset, is it people.
I bet it’s a tough place to work but very rewarding and humbling.
Rarely do we see teams this far behind. So I’m excited to see what Vowel’s will do with the team once their systems and factory are up to modern F1 standards
15 years ago I interned at a components group that made motors which ended up in tanks, helicopters and MRI machines. I was a Process Engineer assistant and we literally tracked close to every component in these admittedly much less assemblies of dozens or hundreds of parts with... Microsoft Excel.
That's a slight over simplification. There were scripts and software built up around the excel sheets which noted where in the manufacturing and assembly process different things were. IIRC it was generally tracked with numbers for days in production/travel. We'd gant stuff out based on that to see where things were waterfalled and impeding other things.
This was fairly antiquated for me, a computer engineering student, even back then. I frequently noted that we could move to something like an MS Access database and port most of the scripts and software over to be based off of tha tand have a much easier time keeping track of relationships between parts, assemblies and processes.
I can't image having an even less sophisticated method for building an F1 car.
It's always great to hear progress happening. Especially for a team as prestigious as Williams. Hopefully they'll become proper mid pack fighters soon.
Could you imagine being a F1 team and not having a proper data program..... Good to see James making the proper adjustments!
I'm seeing this James' trait in best leaders: the ability to massively break down a complex problem everyone was convinced cannot be solved into relatively simple steps forward, surprising with a big impact. Fingers crossed.
@5:42 I have that same Black and Decker drill, and I get mocked for owning it when helping my friends with home renovations...
Excel is very capable but when the working attitude is so lax, it wouldn't have mattered what system was in place, if it was not being utilised at all/or correctly.
As someone doing a supply chain management major at university, i would give my left leg to intern at Williams and witnessing this change from obsolete to modern. Would be an excellent case study.
The Black and Decker cordless drill at 5:41 uses nicad batteries and is likely 15 years old or more. It’s actually a 6mm hex driver with a snap in drill chuck. It’s a high quality homeowner level item. I know because mine is my favorite driver. It’s actually smart to pinch pennies in this area. It works just as good as a $200 one.
I hope they dont extinct as other previous constructors like Lotus, Cooper, Brabham… they need to buck up the technology in order to keep up with the latest things
I really hope at least it is Office 365 atleast and not Office 2003. 😂
probably using a keygen too
You will be surprised how often systems run on very old codes like an Excel sheet. Big systems that can have downtime have barely options to update, so many systems are built on top with very old code underneath
I love Williams and the day Dorilton Capital got James Vowels in to run the team, is and will go down in history as the day Williams were brought back to life. I am now 100% confident they will be fighting again for wins and championships in the near future
It's amazing it got out a working car for the first morning of testing. Explains Paddy Lowes troubles a few years ago
When are you guys going to give more details on what's happening at red bull I've been seeing many news reports from daily express and so forth but not to sure how accurate the information is that they are supplying and most of others just feels like clickbait ....I would rather prefer to hear it from the race as the reputation you guys have built has been very good in terms of reliability sources of quality information amongst others this channel is really great in the descriptive details you guys provide on all F1 topics. ...thank you for all efforts and your enthusiastic support for F1
Better than a works team while using Excel to build a car. I'd be embarrassed if I was Alpine.
Alpine is something amazing
how u can build a car that +10kg
and slower than last year
Natural consequence of being fr*nch