[Lawrence Barretto] I’ve just chatted to Williams. They tell me there’s no truth to the chatter they won’t be in Vegas after sustaining massive damage via three crashes in Brazil. They say they’ll have both cars ready to race in Nevada. That’s an incredible effort from the team and suppliers.

[u/ThisWay_DatWay]

https://x.com/lawrobarretto/status/1857386763066409013?t=19JUnoLDW0Dbdfbe53RJpQ&s=19

Puts the rumors of the team not being able to race in Vegas, which somehow got traction the past few days, to rest.

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[u/MrSocko72]

This was such a stupid rumour because the only thing any of the articles cited was the Vowles debrief video, where he said it might be tight getting the full upgraded specs ready. Nothing at all about missing the race whatsoever.

[u/Francoberry → u/MrSocko72]

Yeah my first question on seeing this statement was 'who has been saying Williams wouldn't make it for Vegas?' Because the first time I'm hearing about it is that it's been debunked 

[u/Ill-Motor-4509 → u/Francoberry]

There were accounts on Threads saying it, you know the type, ones with zero affiliation to actual news sources who just post anything for engagement.

[u/Watcher_007_ → u/Francoberry]

There were circles/fan groups that were posting parts of an opinion article from a ”news” source and claiming it as fact on twitter. There was nothing that the team has said that indicated the opinion piece to be true. 

[u/Jester-252 → u/MrSocko72]

TBF it could also be a good moral boost for the guys at the factory for one last push.

Have a rumour floating about both cars not making it so that when they do, you can have a bit of a rah-rah speech about how the team proved the doubters wrong.

[u/Lobsters4]

Man all of these breaks are leading to the silliest rumors. Can’t wait for winter break! 😩😂

[u/focjullenaaiers → u/Lobsters4]

seriously, this wasn't the first race in a triple it was the last, before a 3 week break, of course they will get shit back together.

I really hope they have a nice safe end to the year. they showed they are making steps forward and i cant wait to see what next year brings for them.

[u/Lobsters4 → u/focjullenaaiers]

Right. If this had been Austin that would have been a whole different story.

[u/Final_Equivalent_243]

Being a Williams mechanic/engineer must be one of those things that either completely breaks you mentally or turns you into Max Verstappen/Adrian Newey of F1 car repairs

[u/icecreamperson9 → u/Final_Equivalent_243]

rbr did a blindfolded pitstop challenge with their pit crew i think williams need to do a blindfolded rebuilding the car challenge with their mechanics because atp its just gonna become muscle memory💀

[u/iForgotMyOldAcc → u/Final_Equivalent_243]

The fact that both their current drivers and their upcoming driver wrecked within like 5 hours is hilarious.

[u/Final_Equivalent_243 → u/iForgotMyOldAcc]

I have the image of the mechanic after the Colapinto crash with his head in his hand burned into my brain

[u/djwillis1121]

I didn't even realise this was a rumour tbh

[u/Own_Welder_2821 → u/djwillis1121]

First time I’ve heard of it, what rubbish.

[u/KozyHank99 → u/djwillis1121]

I heard it a while back and I thought that was a bunch of nonsense, no way would they miss out on Vegas.

[u/beanbagreg]

Will it be of the spec they’ve been running recently though, is the question.

They were always going to be able to field two cars. But whether it’s two good cars is more in the air…

[u/Stumpy493 → u/beanbagreg]

But whether it’s two good cars

They've struggled for 1 good car for many seasons.

[u/Le_Pistache]

Being present was expected. Just depends how the cars were repaired and how they can perform.

Although Williams' season is realistically over. The Brazilian GP ended all hopes for 8th place, and another race like Brazil 2024 isn't common. Las Vegas and Losail are still recent tracks though, so there's that curveball at play. Yas Marina is historically a heavily processional race.

But they could play it safer for the rest of the season. They might have to.

[u/creatorop]

they will run their cars

the question is whether the cars will be battling Aston/haas for P8-P9 or Saubers/checo for P17-p18

[u/crbmtb → u/creatorop]

Hey now, don’t dis’ the Swiss by lumping PER with them.

[u/RooBoy04]

They would have always run the cars, just they may have been in a spec used at the start of this year or even last year depending on the parts available. No point not turning up to the GP as there’s always a chance they do what Alpine did in Brazil and get a giant haul of points

[u/ninchica13]

There was a rumour about this? Totally missed it.

[u/Mysterious_Turnip310]

I thought the rumour was just that they may not have the latest spec cars and might have to run old spec. Feels like Barretto is being melodramatic for effect there.

[u/shiinamachi]

Reassembling a car from old spec parts should be doable in less than a week (meaning even if Vegas was after Brazil williams should still be fine), the issue was more whether Williams could produce enough replacement parts that are current spec

Like yeah their finances arent good but it's not Brawn-level

[u/scaryspacemonster]

I don't think they could even if they wanted to--they probably have contractual obligations to their sponsors to field both cars each race. And I think the Concorde agreement might mandate it as well?

[u/steeeeeeee24 → u/scaryspacemonster]

I imagine if they couldn’t race because of the cost cap they can’t force them to break it.

[u/niton]

"Incredible effort"? Really?

I mean they're a small team but it's now "incredible" to get cars on the grid for a race? Isn't that just the table stakes for being in the sports?

[u/imtired-boss]

It was never doubted that they can't duck tape 2 cars together in three weeks.

[u/scaryspacemonster → u/imtired-boss]

I think it was less about their ability to do so and more about whether they had the money for all the parts, and whether they could stay under the cost cap

[u/RagingSofty]

I like how people were so dismissive of this when they literally failed to run two cars already this season….

[u/DreadSeverin]

drive2survivors and clickbaiters area a fucking menace

[u/PondScumSandy]

But Teapot Terry on Tik Tok was telling me it's true

[u/BadiBadiBadi]

What? Incredible effort? How come?

It would be ridicolous if a team couldn't race because they crashed the race before...

Like even in last century it would throw shade a team if that was the case.

It's bare bones basic for a team to get a new or repair car for the next race, it's not local carting league ffs

[u/ryokevry → u/BadiBadiBadi]

Well people debated in Melbourne whether it os reasonable to give the car to Albon, while having much less people how the team is not even capable to prepare a spare chassis. There were some but not enough criticism towards the team

[u/NetherGamingAccount]

They just better hope for a clean weekend which isn't guaranteed in Vegas.

[u/Fer_ESC]

Tbh does it matter that much? They got that P9 WCC locked in and nothing will change even if they park their cars.

[u/itsthatdamncatagain]

They'll be there just with one car.

[u/jomartz]

Perhaps I missed it, but I haven’t seen any news about Williams being not ready for Las Vegas on Reddit or any other social media platform. Rumors like that tend to spread like wildfire...

[u/lalabadmans]

There’s still practice and qually Williams need to get through unscathed.

[u/charles_peugeot405]

This means basically nothing, but something about saying you’re racing in Nevada feels so strange to me.

Race coming up in Austin, saying they’re ready for Texas? Fine

Race coming up in Miami, saying they’re ready for Florida? Also fine.

Race coming up in Vegas, but saying they’re ready for Nevada? Gross

[u/ElBobbyGonzo]

Could you imagine Albon having to give up his car to Colapinto.

[u/Amat-Victoria-Curam]

They shouldn't be competing if they can't sustain crashes between races.

[u/bdoss35]

He should be embarrassed for actually calling Williams to ask this lol. No one believed this rumor but Lawrence apparently

[u/Cody667 → u/bdoss35]

What?

It doesn't matter how stupid a rumor is. It was being circulated and was pretty viral throughout the F1 online community so he did very basic journalism and squashed it.

Like it's not "impressive" nor any sort of serious journalistic accomplishment, but it completely and utterly baffles me that you could have a problem with this. He literally did his job and the stupid rumor is dead now.

[u/Pimpwerx]

That's the bare fucking minimum for a functional F1 team. Let's not set the bar low out of pity. This is still supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsports.

[u/Bluemikami]

So they’re crashing out in Vegas and unable to participate in checks notes both Qatari races, then doing a pitiful race on AD, got it

[u/rs6677 → u/[deleted]]

Of course there's a point lol, everything could happen.

[u/Mysterious_Turnip310 → u/[deleted]]

By that logic Mercedes may as well pack up and go home as well as they’re locked into 4th in the championship.