Hmm, Stroll is pretty poor, but I think theres more to Sirotkin than this awful car is showing, and I think he'll surprise people a little bit with a season under his belt and a chassis that works. he's also been the only driver feeding back into future development, he's really proactive in learning about the car (he's got a degree in race engineering), whereas Stroll is known for just ****ing off into his own bubble and being no help. Strolls dad isn't actually financing the team any further than paying for the seat, which someone else invariably will come along and do (theres plenty of rich kids with multi millionaire fathers or corporate sponsers out there). You're also being a bit harsh about Sirotkins performance last weekend, yeah he caused an accident and deserved his penalty, but he was running on ruined tyres whilst driving a car that Perez had taken a huge chunk out of with his petulance (TBH I think Williams were wrong to leave him out on those tyres so long, the blame should be there IMO).
Their performance this year arguably isn't even their worst this decade, both 2011 and 2013 were worse performance wise - 11 was with a dogshit Cossie in the back (they ended up winning a race in 12 with a Renault) and 13 was just awful - 2 point finishes all year, even though the car was reliable - Bottas barely troubled the timekeepers until they got to the USA. They finished 3rd in the championship the next year. You say these things compound, and they can, but Williams have a really good track record of turning a bad season around with a great follow up (though getting themselves in a mess in the first place... not so good). They are really prudent with their limited budget, so if a car is turd they quickly drop development to focus on improving next years design, they don't have the resources to do both.
I'll give credit to Minardi for giving lots of young drivers a chance to have a race, and mebbie 99-01 they could compete with the other back markers, but most of their time they've failed to finish more often than not. Don't get the Trulli comment, he raced 7 times for them, pretty much at the back all the time (finished 4 races, 2 dead last, one last but one...). Fisichella faired no better the year before, though both evidently did enough to show they could drive despite the car they had.
As for Porsche rumours, they crop up every few years. VWG have been coyly teasing the idea of commiting to F1 for over a decade now, but have never taken any steps towards actually making an engine - the company line is they have little to no benefits to their street cars, so not worth the money. They'd rather concentrate on touring cars under the Audi/SEAT brands.
