Williams will not run on Thursday after Stroll crash

2017 F1 season

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Williams has confirmed it will not take part in the fourth day of testing today after its car was damaged in Lance Stroll’s crash yesterday.

“Following a thorough inspection overnight some damage to the FW40 chassis was discovered and therefore, on safety grounds, the team will not run the car today,” it said in a statement.

“A second chassis will be prepared at track this afternoon, as originally planned, with the team aiming to be back on track for the second test next week starting on Tuesday 7th March.”

Williams head of performance engineering Rob Smedley explained how Stroll had his crash at turn five.

“Lance was out on cold medium tyres on an out lap, a lot of fuel in the car, and the tyre stepped away from him and he was an innocent victim of that happening,” said Smedley.

“What should have been a fairly little, innocuous, sideways moment brought him around into the barrier and there was some damage. But that happens and we expect it to happen. There’s no blame on his part, obviously.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Williams will not run on Thursday after Stroll crash”

  1. Williams is fortunate to have someone as experienced as Massa…. Imagine them having two rookies like STR did two years ago

    1. More importantly they need someone in the car who can directly compare it to last year. Hence why they needed Bottas or Massa for continuity through these significant changes.

      1. Agree. Continuity is important when attempting to back one crap year onto another. Massa is the perfect choice.

  2. Lucky daddy is paying for it all.

    1. The bill for all of Strolls damage has probably already exceeded his sponsorship

      1. Exeeded €40m (roughly 1/4 of Williams entire budget)? Nah. Not yet ;)

  3. Early days but having seen videos of the incidents, they looked completely innocuous and avoidable. He may be new to F1 but he’s certainly not new to open-wheel motorsport.

    Let’s hope for William’s sake he can keep it on track in the far higher pressures of race days, otherwise his daddy’s supposed $80m will quickly be eaten up by repair bills.

  4. I’d like to think that Williams were intelligent enough to put a crash-damage clause into the contract, something along the lines of: “the $50 million payment to Williams to place ‘junior’ in a race seat at all Grand Prix for 2017 includes up to $5 million of crash damage; all crash-damage suffered by ‘junior’ beyond that level will be reimbursed to Williams, at cost, by Daddy-Stroll, payment due on receipt of invoice”.

  5. ExcitedAbout17
    2nd March 2017, 10:33

    Thus Massa can enjoy his retirement after all; just $5M richer ;)

  6. Hopefully he won’t be the next Maldonado

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