The Team Principal

Seventeen

The next couple of races has gone really quick. I have spent time relaxing but obviously still working pretty hard to make sure that everything is sorted for each weekend. But it is now time for one of my favourite race weekends on the calendar and that MONACO! When I was younger I use to come every other year but now I come pretty much every single year. 

When it's Monaco race weekend, the media is all over it. The driver pairings for the press conference is George is paired with Mich Schumacher and Nicholas is paired with fellow Canadia Lance Stroll. But I also have the team principal press conference as well with Red Bull's Christian Horner and McLaren's Andreas Seidl. 

At the moment the drivers are getting ready for the press conference, which I'm at in the garage talking with the engineer and mechanics about how I want an efficient weekend with the pit stops and the check on the car before they have to go into parc ferme. The team agree with what I said and get back to what they were doing. 

The next day it was time for me to head over to the conference centre ready for the team principal press conference. Once I got to the centre I walked onto the stage and took my seat in the middle of the two other team principals. 

"Afternoon Christian, Afternoon Andreas, how are you both?" I asked before the conference started. "I'm good thank, you Frankie" Christian responded. "I'm alright thank you, Frankie, how are you?" Andreas asked. "I'm not too bad, just hoping that we all have a good weekend and that there are no hiccups in the process" I replied. Andreas was about to say something but a media representative from Formula One spoke up. 

"Good afternoon and welcome to the team principal press conference here in Monaco, today we have Christian Horner from Red Bull, Andreas Seidlfrom McLaren and Francesca Williams from Williams. Now it's time for questions and then some from the floor" the media rep said. 

A/N: I have found what was said at the press conference in Monaco 2021, I am going to be using that for the press conference part of this story. Notice that I do not own what was said at the press conference but I may change little parts of it to fit the story

Q: Christian, let's start with you: first and third in FP1, but let's rewind the clock back a little. How confident were you and the team coming into this weekend?

"You always look forward to racing in Monaco. It's a different challenge, a different type of circuit. We had a good race here a couple of years ago. We missed not being here last year. It's a great track. The driver is a key factor around here as well. So we look forward to this event, as we do every year" Christian responded

Q: Andreas, you've made an early commitment to Lando Norris, with news of him re-signing for the team. He's had a great start to the year, but what is it about him in particular that impresses you?

"His speed. That's the most important thing because that's something we can't fix if it's not there. I think if you look back now, what he has shown to us in the last two-and-a-half years it's impressive to see how he started in his Formula 1 career, into the top 10 in his first-ever qualifying in Melbourne in 2019. And then simply taking these steps from year to year, and also having this great start into this year's season was enough for us to be fully convinced that he is the right guy for us going ahead. Lando is also feeling very, very happy within the team and therefore it was quite an easy and straightforward decision to put the next multi-year agreement in place and I'm obviously very., very happy for the entire team that we have with Daniel and Lando definitely one of the best driver line-ups in Formula 1 in our team and I think it will be key on our journey hopefully getting back towards the front in Formula 1 again in some years" was Andreas's answer. 

Q: Francesca, Lando's signature on a McLaren contract has placed the focus on other young hotshoes. When can we expect news of George Russell's future?

"(laughs) You can't ask me that! I think George is a Mercedes driver for many years and I don't think they will let him go. But we will see. We've got time to talk about drivers. We are not in the need now to discuss that" I answered.

There were some more questions and then the F1 media representative spoke up. "Now its time for questions from the floor"

"Question for Francesca. What is it like running a team at one of the most prestigious races on the Formula One calendar?" someone from channel 4 asked.

 "Well running a team during the Monaco Grand Prix is quite stressful, as it's my first time doing it. But there is a lot of planning that has to be done to make sure that everything is perfect and runs like clockwork. I'm sure the other team principals can agree with me, there are parts that can be quite stressful" was my response. 

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) For all three: when we have something like the bendy wing clarification, what does this do to your budget cap spend, because obviously now there's an unforeseen spend. Do you have contingencies for these sorts of things or do you get to the end of the year and you sort of have to suddenly chop any other development programme you may have had planned?

AS: For us, it doesn't have any influence because we don't have to change anything on the car. Our car was compliant with the regulations for the first races, it's compliant now and I just want to make it clear as well that the Technical Directive is not a new regulation, it's just an additional or different test, but the basic regulation, especially article 3.8, which is the key one, doesn't change.

CH: Well, I think for a team like us that is obviously running up against the cap, then of course strategically you have to make choices. The impact of something like this is probably about half a million dollars so you've got to... that will prevent something else from happening, so that's the juggling act that we're now having to make with the budget cap and financial regs.

FW: Yes, in this special case, there's no impact to us but our budget is quite a bit below the cost cap but that means we have to work very efficiently because we don't have the resources that the bigger teams have. On the other side, you have to have something in the back, like the crashes that we had in Imola, they are cost-effective (sic) and even if you are not with the cost cap it affects your budget and I think you have to have something in the budget for unforeseen accidents, things like this, you have to, and you have to cope with it and I think that what makes... that was the idea and also the sense of the cost cap to cope with this

The conference continued for another 30 minutes before it was over nad I headed bac to the garage to go over FP1 data and FP2 data to try an work out the average position where our drivers are going to place in FP3 and possibly qualifying. So I spend about an hour going over everything because if I spend too much time on it, I will tire myself out pretty quick, 

That evening, after sorting through data, myself and Nicky went back to the hotel and just relaxed in bed, a majority of the evening and fell asleep early which is the first time in a long time that has happened for me. Just being in Nicky's arms makes me feel happy, calm and safe. 

The next day went pretty quick with our average FP3 placing being about right and then the qualifying session was alright but not the best that we have had, with Nicholas placing P18 and George P15, but all we can hope for is a good race, because that's where the points are scored.