Williams and McLaren both suffering on straightline speed

Williams and McLaren seem to share a common problem in 2018 - a lack of straightline speed. That's despite the teams relying on different engine manufacturers.

It's especially concerning for Williams, which has a Mercedes power unit. That alone should make it a match for many teams out on the track. But instead, the squad has failed to score a single championship point so far this season.

Williams had the slowest top speed of any team in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. Overall it's been significantly slower through speed traps this year than 2017 in both qualifying and the race.

The introduction of the halo cockpit protection device has made all cars heavier and therefore slower in 2018. But the problem appears particularly acute at Williams.

"That straightline performance was really good last year," explained Lance Stroll. "Especially in the race - for overtaking and for maintaining position, and having competitive races.

"We've lost a good chunk in our strong point and we haven't gained enough in our weak point", he admitted. "We don't have the handling benefits that we were looking for of the direction change that we made over the winter."

Sergey Sirotkin confirmed that the team had changed its approach to straightline versus cornering speeds over the winter.

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"Nobody was, of course, planning to completely flip this balance," he told Motorsport.com. "But we wanted to move it to maybe a bit 50-50.

"I won't say that we were really planning to lose on the straights, but we knew ahead of time and were expecting that we wouldn't be the fastest.

"But of course in turn we expected to get something that we so far didn't get."

Williams is not alone on the grid in struggling for straightline speed. Having switched to Renault engines over the winter, McLaren is still failing to extract the most out of their new power units in 2018.

The lack of power was pointed out as McLaren's the team's major weakness by former Ferrari test driver Marc Gene.

Gene was also asked about F1's other Spanish driver Fernando Alonso, whose team McLaren has struggled so far in 2018 despite switching to Renault power.

"I think what McLaren needs to do to approach the level of the other teams is to improve their straight line speed," he told AS newspaper.

"They say that for Barcelona there will be a great revolution," he added. "But the gap is significant."

McLaren has promised to close the gap to engine stablemates Red Bull and Renault from Spain onwards.

"[Daniel Ricciardo's win in Shanghai] shows us the potential of the power-unit," said Fernando Alonso. "It gives us confidence that with this power-unit we will be able to fight if we do a good job on the chassis side."

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