To new Wiliams Racing fans: List of regular Williams Racing content
- Rebus T. Farkas
- Mar 18
- 12 min read
I always say this blog is not a real blog. As such, this post is not a real blog post. In fact, this piece of work is the closest I've ever written to the original reason I started a "blog": supplementary material to short-form text. You see, I like limited-space social media platforms because they force the users to be concise, which not only keeps the conversation going but also is a good skill in other areas of life. However, every once in a while, a topic of conversation comes up, where one short post is simply not enough to convey all the information I need to - hence the blog.
The latest of such occasions happened when I was talking to some of the new Williams fans, and I realized how little the general public knows about the content the team puts out every weekend. This is a bit weird because among us, fans, we often talk about how incredibly lucky we are to get all the behind-the-scenes looks, insights and fan appreciation.
In this post, I collected all the content that the team has regularly put out around the race weekends in the last couple of years. Obviously, I can not promise the content won't change, but this should be a good basis for this season, too.
Information
I divide my list into two categories. Information is the type of content for people more interested in the technical side of the sport - not necessarily the physics or the engineering but if you want to know more about the reasons behind some decisions made or seek more in-depth knowledge about the sport, you are guaranteed to learn something new every race weekend.
The weekend warm-up
You know how sometimes YouTubers will have to add something to a long-form video during editing, so they add a cut, obviously recorded separately from the rest of the content, where they add, clarify, or correct what is said just before or just after? Consider this paragraph to be something like that. Because, of course, the first item on the list is the one they haven't done in the first race weekend, so it is possible they won't do it this season. Nonetheless, I have already written this part, and I'm leaving it in, just in case it was a one-off like that Vowles Verdict after pre-season testing that was neither called the Vowles Verdict nor presented by Kraken, but who are we kidding; it was a Vowles Verdict. Okay, back to the post.
Before each race weekend, we get a short video consisting of three sections - all of them including a person named James. Coincidence? Yes! James #1 is the team principal, James Vowles (You've read my last post. Who else am I going to be calling #1?), who shares some general knowledge and insights specific to the race weekend coming up. It may be about the unique characteristics of the track, the logistics, or his personal preferences, but we always get some interesting new information.
Then, the two race engineers, James Urwin and Gaetan Jego, have a fun conversation, answering some questions about their expectations of the race and sometimes even their drivers. Most F1 fans' favourite race engineer (if they even have one) has something to do with their favourite driver/team, but I absolutely love these two because of these conversations.
James Lorenzo provides some knowledge about the track - which might sound similar to JV's segment, but while that is about the team principal's personal experience, this is a more factual bit: length, elevation, etc. All in all, The Weekend Warm-up is a great way to get ready for the next race.
Friday morning team talk
Every race weekend, the trackside part of the team gathers in the motorhome(?), where a debriefing takes place. On some of the race weekends, the team shares the footage in the app/website, and it easily becomes one of the highlights of the weekend for me.
It starts out as you would expect, with James Vowles pointing out specific challenges during the weekend, what areas to focus on, etc. It then turns into a heartfelt inspirational speech which was incredibly useful during last year's series of unfortunate crashes. Alex Albon once complained about how hard it was for him to follow James' well-thought-out monologues when all he has is "Okay guys, let's keep pushing"... Of course, Alex has nothing to worry about, as the drivers are not expected to match the level of profoundness and eloquence of the boss, but they can use this as a platform to convey general messages (e.g. gratitude for fixing up the car after a crash in time for the next session).
Once all three said their piece, JV turns to the drivers and asks a question that is guaranteed to end up in laughter. Sometimes, it's about the driver's personal lives or fun anecdotes, but my favourites from last year were Alex's reports on the attempts to eliminate the suspected curse that made the team crash so much: saging (sageing?) the car, visiting monks, etc. There was no stone unturned, which I understand. I mean, I am a (wo)man of science, but I am also a fan of fantasy and occult novels, and I know a hex when I see one.
End-of-day assessments
At the end of every day of the race weekend, the team produces a ~2-minute video assessing how the day went. On practice and quali days, it's usually a driver (unless something bad happens - then JV sends a message to explain the incident and calm the spirits); on race day, it's usually the boss. It is really great to hear how the day went from their perspective because, by that time, social media platforms are full of armchair experts who don't always see things the same way.
Vowles Verdict
This is my absolute favourite content of the weekend - yes, that includes the race. On the night of the race (or the next day at the latest), the team posts on the platform previously known as Twitter, where fans can ask questions from JV in the comments. Then, a couple of days later, the team produces a video where the team principal first gives his own overall assessment of the weekend before answering some of those questions.
I really appreciate this kind of access to someone of his expertise. I have submitted questions almost every weekend since it became an option, and I am privileged to say that most of the time, at least one of my questions ends up in the video. (Weird flex, I know.)
I could write an entire post on the Vowles Verdict. (In fact, if I wasn't looking at a very busy time of my life, I probably would...) Instead, let me just summarize my advice for submitting questions in a couple of bullet points:
Be relevant: Ask questions about the race weekend and how it went. Personal questions (other than "How did it feel when...?" ) are out of scope here.
Think: As a teacher (sort of), I am expected to believe that there are no stupid questions. However, let me say that there are some contexts where asking certain questions is not a wise action. As an example, asking "When are you going to get fired?" after a couple of bad weekends is asinine. He's obviously not going to answer such a hurtful question. Furthermore, unless he personally goes through all the questions to select the ones he would answer, he isn't even going to see it. All you've done is waste the time of a poor employee who does the first round of selection.
Ask away: I'm saying this because it used to be a divisive topic - ask as many questions as you want. (Unless you're that one person who asks the same 35 questions full of meaningless buzzwords like you'd see on a LinkedIn post every weekend. Then maybe practice some moderation.) I usually ask three questions, but it depends on what happens at the weekend.
Remember, these aren't rules just some advice based on my experiences with my own questions. I'm not always right; there have been plenty of times when I rolled my eyes upon seeing a question, e.g. because the answer was obvious, but it still ended up in the video because it was important for the team that everybody knew their stance on the topic. Anyway, use these as guidelines but take them with a grain of salt.
Since every post has to have a thumbnail, let me share my absolute favourite question I ever asked from JV. To the best of my recollection, this is the only time he answered a question not related to racing in the Vowles Verdict, and that is because I snuck the question about the anecdote on the back of a technical question (Alex mentioned the pumpkin spice latte on team radio after the qualification session, so that's how the two are connected).
The first Vowles Verdict aired after pre-season testing. In the interest of complete transparency, I have to admit that technically, it wasn't called a Vowles Verdict - which I assume has something to do with the lack of "presented by Kraken" with the fancy intro bit - but you know, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks a duck, I'm still gonna count it as a duck, even if it doesn't have the duck's sponsor's logo on its (rear) wing... A concerning observation about that video is that they didn't indicate who asked the question, which I know shouldn't matter because, at the end of the day, it is about getting an interesting insight from an expert, but I am also human, and if I see my name on something, it makes me feel valued and appreciated for my contribution. Also: bragging rights. (Again, weird flex, I know.) Let's hope it was just a momentary oversight, and the official Vowles Verdict (which should come out any day now) will go back to its regular format.
Written commentary and information in-app
During each session, the team posts information both on the website/app and on social media - interestingly, the content isn't always the same. To be completely honest, if you are able to watch the session, the commentary isn't always helpful unless something Williams-specific happens, where they can provide a bit more insight than your usual commentators. However, if I have to miss a session, I tend to check the app primarily to see how it is going, although there are plenty of fans who actively post on social media to make sure I don't miss anything. Additionally, they sometimes post interesting team radio transcripts. I know there are apps for that, but filtering the more important dialogues has value in my eyes.
During and after the race weekends, they also provide written reports, but more often than not, they just transcribe what the drivers, team principal, etc., have previously said in interviews. Therefore, if you follow the sport as closely as I do, you probably won't find any new information there.
Fun and games
Welcome to the second category, where I collected all the content that is not necessarily about information but rather relaxation and pure fun (and, you know... games).
Badges
There are so-called badges in the Williams Racing app. Every once in a while, they create a new one, and fans have a limited time (a couple of days) to add it to their collection by clicking on a button. There's a badge for every occasion: every race weekend, every point-scoring finish, every event. There's a "Thank you" badge for the first time you order merch and another one for participating in the Pit Wall Prediction game (see below). I already had three badges before the season even started! The graphics are beautiful - sometimes, they write entire posts explaining how the badge was designed, and it is always great to see how much thought goes into them. The team is clearly passionate about the badges!
Here's the thing, though...
They don't really do anything.
These are online badges, i.e. pictures. They have no function. No one is keeping a score about who is getting the most. If you don't get one, you don't really miss out on anything. The only thing that happens is if you collect all the *race* badges during the season, then you get a special "poster" (also a digital one, in an email) at the end of the season featuring all of them. Even this is only about race badges. Plus, I did it in 2023, and I was very excited that it was numbered and that I got #1 until I realized everybody got #1. A friend once asked why these are so great, and the best I could come up with is that if you collect all badges, you get to feel superior over those who didn't.
Over the years, I've come across a couple of ideas by fans to make them more fun, and in case a Williams employee comes across my post, let me explain the key idea: tie them to something physical. No matter how limited, people don't really get excited about digital pictures - or at least they shouldn't (looking at you, NFT addicts!). If they translated to something like a sticker or a patch that you can only order if you already have the digital version, fans would have a blast showing off the rare ones to each other. It would also help the team's rising merchandise-problem - but that's the topic of a whole other post.
Pit Wall Predictions
A really fun game in the app and the topic that inspired this blog (because I was going to write some interesting statistics in a thread, but then I decided I needed a more suitable platform). The blog post where I explain the game (not that it is complicated) and present some useful statistics can be seen here. I have to say, while it did make me more successful for the remainder of the season, I advise against relying on those statistics blindly. Even Franco's arrival made that data less useful, and now, in the new season, the changes may render the previous data completely irrelevant.
If you want more useful advice, remember: in this game, you can change your predictions up until the start of the race, which can be really useful when you're unsure about the weather or when you're waiting for the official tyre strategy recommendations. Good luck!
Tyre or lower
Tyre or lower is a new game introduced this season. I missed the first two rounds, but I did the third one. Maybe it's because it is also connected to the race weekend, but it seems to be a similar prediction game to Pit Wall Predictions with the notable exception that they give you a possible answer, and you have to guess whether the real one is higher, lower or equal; and an exciting addition that you can boost one of the answers that you are really sure about. Plus, the leaderboard is public for this one. I'm gonna be interested to see how it goes.
I should perhaps mention here that there are other games and features in the app - AR seems really fun - but you can play with those any time. The ones selected here are linked to race weekends.
Team Torque
Much like Max Verstappen, I also tend to find podcasts boring. Not all of them, in fact, some are incredibly well put together, but there's a certain laziness in getting together with your friends, goofing around and calling it content. However, Max and I appear to be in the minority: the fans can't seem to stop talking about Team Torque.
Honestly, my problem with podcasts is that they tend to be slower in getting the information through. Especially when both hosts are very shy and take long to think about answers to questions, and there's no moderator speeding things up. However, I'm sure I've heard quite a lot recently that Carlos is a *leader*, so therefore his involvement might eliminate this issue. I watched the first episode with him, and while the information flow wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked, I was pleasantly surprised by just how much insight I could gain from the video.
Okay, you know what? Fine! I like Team Torque, and I will continue watching.
Fan Zones
Finally, this doesn't completely fit the scope of this blog post because it's a live event (although it creates a lot of online content), but I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't mention the team's award-winning Fan Zones. Around some races, the team rents a venue somewhere in the city of the GP for a week and turns it into an F1 fan's dream. They have show cars, merchandise, E-sports, and autograph sessions with their public figures (drivers, ambassadors, principal, etc.), and now there's a Komatsu simulator that would lure even my husband in. However, the best thing about it is that the entry is free.
The first one has already kicked off in Australia, and it looks amazing. Like a little convention centre of awesome. I so hope that someday they do one in Hungary!
Final remarks
That was my list; I hope you found this list useful! Then again, you probably don't because it's late, and you've already heard of all of them. However, I've just finished it, and since I already wrote it, I figured I might as well publish it.
As for the upcoming posts, unfortunately, between being a mother and a researcher, and you know how I said one and a half years ago that I'd be finishing my PhD within a semester...? I realized that I can't spend as much time on my blog to justify creating a new post for every single idea that I come up with. Because of this, I'm going to have to cancel the "fun, lighthearted" post I promised, which was supposed to be about the three-letter abbreviations of drivers' names and their combination, because I have more important topics in mind. Plus, Verstappen was already behind Bearman at some point, and I don't think I can top that.
That being said, to the best of my knowledge, we're still on for the "F1/Williams-related adventure" I promised, and I already spilled that I'm going to visit an F1 car, so go figure... You might remember I also said in my last post that I didn't want to jinx anything. Luckily I didn't, so I can ̶b̶r̶a̶g̶ write about winning the Williams Database Winter Challenge. Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted another potential topic in this post.
Also, because we can't escape artificial intelligence anywhere these days, when I opened this editor to write this post, the AI assistant immediately proposed some topics, like Analyzing the highs and lows of James Vowles' team strategies, so by all means, let me know if you would be interested in reading an analysis on an out-dated topic the writer knows nothing about... That being said, if you actually have a suggestion on a topic you'd be interested in, don't hesitate to tell me. I'm open to any ideas originating from natural intelligence.
See you in the next one!
Rebus T. Farkas
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