Sunday - Autosport International 2017
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By: Geoff Creighton
Summary
Status: Stopped
That's all from Rob and with that proceedings on the Autosport Stage draw to a close for another year.
"Teams win a drivers championship or a constructors championship because of a well-engineered car. Schemes like the Autosport Young Engineer of the Year are important because it gets the brightest engineers involved and a chance for their dreams to come true. It's great for the industry and great for Willams," says Smedley on the future of engineering in Formula 1.
Lance Stroll was on the stage yesterday. If you missed what he had to say, you can read some of his comments here: 
Talking about Lance Stroll, Smedley says, "There is a lot for him to learn. To bridge the gap in knowledge you have when you come into Formula 1 is something we're working with him on. If you have someone like Lance who is willing to learn and knows it won't just be a cake-walk, that really helps."
"The cars will go a lot quicker this year, the corners will become straights and the driver will not be inhibited by grip. He can just put his foot to the floor and go round what used to be a corner."
"Principally, the car just wasn't fast enough," says Smedley when quizzed on what went wrong in 2016, "You can't just point the finger and we've looked at it objectively. There were quite a few areas where the car wasn't quick enough. We hadn't done a bad job, we just hadn't done the best job."
"The current car has to be the parent of next years car," he says, "We have a big enough team to split the development."
"Did the regulation change come soon enough for you to sit down and think about it properly?" Henry asks Smedley. He replies that it was decided by the end of 2015 and that Williams were one of the earliest teams to start development.
Here's some of the best pics from the show so far today: 
Autosport International 2017 - Sunday - Gallery - Autosport
Autosport International 2017 - Sunday images from Autosport's team of photographers
Sticking with the Williams theme, Rob Smedley will be here at 3.00pm, our final guest for the day and our final guest of Autosport International 2017.
Claire jokes that Nigel Mansell and Juan-Pablo Montoya would be her ideal driver line-up for 2017 before leaving the stage to cheers from the crowd.
Claire is now talking about Dare to be Different, the initiative set up by Susie Wolff for which Williams is an ambassador. "They encourage girls from a vary young age to take an interest in motorsport. A lot of the girls come at the start of the day and think it might be more appropriate for their brothers to be there, but by the end of the day they all want to work in Formula 1. If we are to have a future for F1, we need to have more women working there."
On the subject of drivers: "As soon as Nico made his announcement, I knew that the call was going to come from Toto."
Henry asks about the structural changes in store for Williams in 2017, Claire tells him that they're regrouping and that they're working out what the next step is following the departure of Pat Symonds at the end of last year.
"We've won championships against teams with a bigger budget than us before, so that's not an excuse. You just have to make it work. It's getting harder and harder to secure that sponsorship but there are many feathers in our cap when we go out and sell," Williams tells Henry.
"We've won championships against teams with a bigger budget than us before, so that's not an excuse. You just have to make it work. It's getting harder and harder to secure that sponsorship but there are many feathers in our cap when we go out and sell," Williams tells Henry.
Villeneuve's 1997 championship was the last for Williams, something Claire says is annoying to everyone at Williams and that they'll all keep fighting until they win again.
"Williams is still all about racing. We're not here to sell drinks or road cars, we're here because of one man's dream, he loved cars and he wanted to do this. Everyone at Williams is there because they share Frank's love of the sport."
She's on the stage now - "It's our second year at the Autosport show and we really loved doing it last year. For us to come here is so important, because we can get closer to the fans and the fans can get closer to us."
Villeneuve reckons that Lance Stroll has made the most of a good situation, saying that "money doesn't buy talent". He praises his attitude towards Formula 1 and says he could be a good surprise.
"I always knew that 1997 would be my season. I was happy to see Damon win in 1996 and I knew that wouldn't be my year. What gave me the boost for 1997 was that the team signed Frentzen and said he would be the next champion. That's the mistake they made, because it drove me on."
Villeneuve spoke at length about the respect between Formula 1 drivers when he was on stage earlier. Read his comments here in case you missed them: 
On modern-day driving standards: "Dirty driving does not get penalised," argues Villeneuve, "It is the most dangerous driving we have ever seen, it comes from karting because the kids are so young when they start."
"We never had the perfect car, the driver always had to fight a little bit to accommodate the car. That's what the modern drivers do not have."
Villeneuve on Williams: "It was a team that respected the racers, it's still like that today. Racing came first and that's what was most important to me."
"All the little traditions keep the Indy500 alive. There is a lot of passion but when you're in it, it's just a race. Once you're out of it, you realise what it means."
Henry asks if there was a chance Villeneuve could have by-passed Formula 1 completely and had a career solely in IndyCar. "In the mid-90s being in the States was quite good so it wasn't too bad, but it's still not F1. F1 is the special one," he says.
Villeneuve is now talking about his father Gilles, saying that he thinks he'd have hated modern Formula 1.
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