Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Williams not at a major disadvantage to Mercedes

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Williams chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson says the team is not at a major disadvantage to Mercedes as a customer of the engine manufacturer.

The Mercedes works team dominated the 2014 season, winning 16 of the 19 races as its power unit proved to be by far the strongest on the grid. While McLaren’s Ron Dennis claimed in Japan that it was impossible to win as a customer team to Mercedes, Nelson says he does not see Williams’ status as a customer as a major disadvantage.

“Relative to where we have been using other people’s power units, you face the same issues, the same problems, if you have a Cosworth, or a Renault, or whatever,” Nelson said.

“We work pretty closely with Mercedes, we make some suggestions, they make some. They’re a racing team, they’re there to win championships, which is fine. We haven’t had significant issues with fitting the engine in and fitting the systems around it. Some things we do very differently to Mercedes. Some of it we do in a very similar. So we haven’t have any massive issues with it.

“We have the same engine. Engine designers are engine designers, and chassis designers are chassis designers. Obviously, they get more information at an earlier stage that we might. Their chassis guys will know what the engine guys are working on and there are scenarios where they can push it one direction I guess, or push it in another direction.

“When it boils down to it, the chassis designers are given an engine and they’re putting in the back of their car.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.