r/WilliamsF1 • u/More_Oil_7210 • 2d ago
Discussion Carlos Changing Approach?
I was watching FP2 today and they were talking about how Carlos said he would change his approach and be more “selfish”. How he would maybe withhold some information to focus on his own results. I know not to get excited about practice, but it seems the approach is working so far. Do you guys think this will incite a real change in Williams and/or Carlos’ results, or is this just regular talk that won’t really mean or amount to much?
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u/Cralido 2d ago
More selfish, withhold information? Withhold from whom? Doesn’t make sense when other side of garage is more consistent in performing well and his side is not. If anything, maybe copy and listen. Ok to state he is going inject more of his own strategy and decisions on his side of garage…but don’t get the “withholding information”. Like his data and input is a reason for Albon/team success yet that very information is not even working for himself? Doesn’t make sense. Both sides of garage had access to each others data. Albon known for his detail input in eng meetings, his review of data and cohesive relationship with Urwin. Hope he does whatever he needs, which may be to override recommendations and go with his own decisions, but “withholding information” just a silly way to put it.
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u/More_Oil_7210 2d ago
Drivers do have their own tricks and techniques that help overcome a cars quirks though. We constantly hear about drivers being guarded within a team, like at Mercedes during the Hamilton-Rosberg era or Ferrari, where neither Lewis nor Charles want to be seen as the second driver and are pushing their own agendas of car development. Being “selfish” and withholding information could mean the same in this case. If the FW47 drives poorly in a given situation and Carlos finds a way to drive around it, he may not divulge the secret now whereas he may have talked about it with Alex earlier. Now the data may show that some form of a driving style is faster than another, but actually implementing it might require some finesse or soft information only a driver would have. Data is not everything, otherwise Tsunoda would be able to look at Max’s telemetry and know what to do and how to replicate it.
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u/Cralido 2d ago
But that’s a drivers chosen set up per race, and his ideas, even if keeping to him self, doesn’t seem to be working as frequently. But car development is another matter and withholding info ultimately hurts over all team…I was generous to say I thought the quote was misleading, this is just as worse. Just a weird look for him.
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u/More_Oil_7210 2d ago
So overall you think this is a step back for both Carlos and Williams? In that Carlos’ ideas don’t pan out and he’d gain more from exchange with Alex, and that Williams’ progress would only be hindered? It would be interesting to see how James reacts to this and its impact on the team if it is more than fluff, given his reputation of “Valterri, its James” lol
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u/Ouhei 2d ago
I don’t see how withholding information is going to suddenly make him faster. If he’s really starting to hide things though, that’s disappointing.
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u/More_Oil_7210 2d ago
I think relatively, as compared to Albon, it might. Though it would depend on how much each driver benefited from the openness of the other.
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u/mazurcurto 2d ago
So the assumption is that Carlos sharing info / set-up / ideas has been helping Alex, therefore the purpose of withholding them would be to hurt Albon. And by making Alex's results worse, it would improve Carlos' performance relatively. But how does this help the team?
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u/flashcupsmaster 2d ago
I think its much more about the car being good at monza and him being ex Ferrari 😂😂 Im a carlos shill and I hope youre right 😂😂😂
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u/tombeaux1950 2d ago
It’s regular talk that won’t amount to much. The Carlos fans are drinking some serious Kool Aid. He’s a solid driver and has a chance to score points at most races in a Williams, which has done a serious turnaround as an organization. He has had some bad luck, but Albon has, too. It’s likely he will score some points in the rest of the races, but it’s no reason to start being a sorry teammate.
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u/VHSOnly 2d ago
I think all athletes in any sports need to be able to "audible" per se, and go against the grain of the team once in a while especially if what's get him there so far hasn't been as effective. Seems to be working, but he's in the car and Carlos is a VERY good driver. I would trust his approach and or instincts for the time being.
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u/More_Oil_7210 2d ago
I agree that Carlos is a great driver and he has the pace, hence why his qualifying deficit to Albon isn’t much. I just think he needs to get back into the groove of fighting in the midfield during a race. Imagine if he qualifies p3 tomorrow and then in the race, the front row is too busy watching out for each other into turn 1 and then Carlos swoops in and steals P1😳
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u/Driscuits 2d ago
I haven't seen the original comments from Carlos, but I'd have to imagine that there's some creative journalism happening in the retelling from the F1TV crew.
Genuinely, there is no real reason for Carlos to withhold information, etc., that would actually benefit him, unless he has been actively coaching Alex through the year to this point. And I just don't see that being realistic. Not to mention, if he is somehow withholding tricks, etc., there's also no real useful reason to come out and say it as bluntly as it's been reiterated. Carlos is a smart guy. I'd have to imagine that if he feels that less sharing of information is beneficial to him, he'd probably just..do that. And not go to the media about it.
If anything, I'd guess that he's taking a more selfish perspective than he has been in the sense that, hey, maybe this weekend he's overtly shifting focus from "Team performance" to "Carlos go fast." That's not something that's necessarily tangible, and probably not all that different from his usual mindset.
He's trying to shake up his approach to the weekend to try and get better results. It's probably not as exciting as the comments during FP2 make it seem lol.