Originally Posted by Smiley433:
“Following a re-org at Williams, Smedly will report to Pat Symonds and his role is to "run the cars at the track".
Given last season, it wont be difficult for Williams to have a better season in 2014 - I hope they do well too.
No mention of Massa's role, if there was one, in the Smedly move. According to the BBC, "Smedley's new role as head of vehicle performance is more senior than his position at Ferrari, who failed in an attempt to persuade him to stay." But I guess Williams would say that in their press statement.
No offence taken. I'm imagining Smedly's role is to manage both cars rather than be a specific driver's engineer? So maybe we wont hear, "Valtteri is faster than you".”
Thinking about it, hasn't think been on the cards for a while?
Pretty sure that, at the time Massa signed for Williams, there were rumours about Smedley heading over there as well but he difinitely wasn't going as some kind of "package deal" with Massa but, instead, was going there cos it was a better position, even though the team is smaller.
I guess Smedley's at the point where he's looking for an opportunity to get some proper management experience on his CV to help his career along in the future and, with a Merc' engine and Massa driving, he could well come out of this year as part of the team who "turned things around" for Williams.
Incidentally, while I'm at it, Mystic Si predicts... that this year we're going to see Vettel over-driving the car, getting into scrapes and generally having a bit of a ropey season, a bit like Hamilton did in 2012.
If the Renault power unit isn't up to scratch, I can see Vettel struggling to come to terms with the idea that he just flat-out doesn't have the machinery to do what he wants and ends up getting a bit desperate to compensate.
If the Renault cars
are obviously slower and Vettel just settles into the role of "top Renault driver" without much hassle I'll be very surprised, and impressed.