Williams F1: Developments on the way to improve disappointing Melbourne pace
Williams was clearly not in the rhythm of the best in Melbourne this Sunday. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas still finished 5th and 8th. The team from Grove is expecting improvements by Bahrain to set things right.
Fifth in the race, Felipe Massa had to give way in the last third of the race to a Daniel Ricciardo equipped with super-soft tires. He is nonetheless satisfied with his weekend: « It was a good race. Finishing fifth and scoring good points is truly a good start to kick off the season. The red flag in the middle of the race helped us maintain our one-stop strategy, and thanks to that, we managed to overtake the two Toro Rosso cars, which had made different tire choices. »
Penalized for a gearbox change, Valtteri Bottas started from sixth position but still managed to climb to the eighth final place: « Obviously, the weekend was very difficult. The troubles we encountered in qualifying and then the grid penalty compromised the race. It wasn’t the clean race we were hoping for, but we are scoring points with both our cars. We are really aiming for better positions, and that’s especially true for me. »
The Williams indeed did not seem capable of keeping up with the pace of the Ferraris or even Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull. Should we be worried for the rest of the championship? Rob Smedley, the Performance Director, remains optimistic: « Australia is always a strange race. You arrive here, and there are a lot of unknowns in terms of pace, whether for qualifying or for the race. You can simply make sure to arrive without trouble and collect a decent amount of points, which is what we accomplished. (…) Now, we are looking forward to developing the car as we have some good upgrades on the way. » A new wing is particularly expected – as soon as Bahrain for Felipe Massa.
Rob Smedley finally praised the work done by Williams to improve their pit stops – one of Grove’s dark spots in 2015: « The guys did a brilliant job in the pits today. We redesigned the wheel guns and the team did a fantastic job. Both of our stops were close to two seconds and I’m very pleased with that.»
So we start the season 3rd in the constructors', 1 point behind Ferrari and two ahead of Red Bull #AusGP pic.twitter.com/BNwASNCLtZ
— WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) 20 mars 2016
