Speculation

You're being mean . Williams were "in the doldrums" because they lacked a competitive chassis/engine/aero package, not because their pitstops were rubbish.

You're quite correct, they did lack competitiveness in the areas you mentioned. I would blame the Technical Director of the time, a Mr Sam Michael.

I mentioned McLaren pit stops as one area where the team is underperforming, not the single reason for their comparitively poor showing so far this year. Tyre management and chassis set-up perhaps letting them down as well.

I'd recommend a back to back comparison, so swop in the Keystone Cops for the next race and see if the stops run better before having a go at Sam Michael.

On a serious note - is it not possible for an F1 team to design a jack that doesn't break during a pitstop?

They should stop trying to do the fastest humanly possible pit-stop and just try doing a pit-stop.

They have, apprently, had changes of personnel, so clearly there is more to it than just weeding out the spanner jugglers.

The jacks didn't break, they are special quick-release jacks which unfortunately quick-released a little prematurely. Prior to the fiasco, the team had executed successfully a record-breakingly quick pitstop. This saved them around 0.1 seconds. The subsequent events cost them slightly more than that.

  If Lewis could have crashed after the first stop and before the second stop, the pit-crew would be heroes.

slaggin off Sam is not something you should be doing, but checking your facts. Since his arrival pit stops have been dropped by as much as 35% and for the record hampsters 2.3 sec stop was the fastest ever recorded since Shuey held the record from last year. The jack failure was caused by driver error - HAMPSTER clouted it on arrival and damaged it - dont blame Sam, look at the driver error (again) and as for the penalty to Maldondo - thats sick, Hampster should have given way rather than crash out - he knows that in his heart but his head hasnt caught up with him yet.

Maybe they need to slow down a bit then,  the pit stop failure rate must also be about 35%. The fueling error which cost Lewis pole in Spain,  the 2 botched pit stops for Lewis in Bahrain which dropped him from 2nd to 8th, the pit stop foul up for Jenson in China, the clutch setting change which ruined Lewis's start in Monaco and caused him to have a sluggish pit stop, all come under Sam Michael's umbrella of responsibility.

In Lewis's defence, yes, it would have been prudent of him to concede to Maldanado and guarantee his 4th place finish, but I do feel Martin Whitmarsh's public crticism of Lewis in this instance is to deflect from the teams failings that put Lewis in that position in the first place. He was only on the same piece of track as Maldanado because of the earlier pit stop calamity. He didn't damage the jack, he triggered the release mechanism, a design error in my eyes.

I think Eddie Jordan put a Gyspy curse on Sam... or maybe he is actually on a much higher salary from Ferrari???  The thot plickens.

As for the Lewis / Maldonado incident, you can debate all day long about it being better for Lewis to give way, and it is a close call.

But the fact is Maldonado was penalised for an unsafe return (after leaving the track limits with all four wheels), which it was.  As you can see he lost all steering control when the car bottomed out over the raised curb.  Losing control of a car returning from off the track can never be deemed safe by the race stewards and as such they have to inforce a penalty.

I though that too, but the BBC never mentioned it. He probably wouldn't have hit Lewis at all but for the fact his wheels were in the air and he had no steering.

Lewis Hamilton did not clout anything.  There was nothing dramatic about his arrival in the box.  There is in car footage of his arrival, and there is no drama involved.  The jack is in place, the car arrives.  There is no need for adjusment of the jack, it just fails.

Beyond that, the jack should be designed to be "clouted".  That is part of the deal if that is what you are trying to coerce your crew with beer with in order to get record pit-stops.  Beyond even that there is always the possibility that the car will come in a little hot, or at the wrong angle and yes, the jack will get "clouted", but it should be able to withstand the clouting.

All that has been admitted to is that the quick release engaged when the car contacted with it.  The spare jack had to be used.  It was of a different design (and still the jack man had to be given instruction on jacking so the wheels could be aligned correctly).

More personnel change for Silverstone after a gunner "injured" himself on an end plate.

Pastor Maldonado should have continued across the chicane and rejoined behind Lewis Hamilton...and then taken him.  The penalty was deserved.  That didn't happen though.  Lewis Hamilton should have given more room in the first place...he knew he was going to be taken.  The loss of any points was deserved.