Williams misses the mark due to strategy
After a race full of twists and turns, the prevailing feeling at Williams was the frustration of missing out on a great result. A too conservative strategy prevented the two white cars from reaching a podium that seemed within their grasp.
The Williams engineers appeared visibly as surprised as the viewers when they saw their two cars leading the British Grand Prix after a few laps. Unfortunately, the British team failed to maximize their explosive start due to an overly cautious strategy, thereby leaving the initiative to the Mercedes and then the Ferraris.
Felipe Massa, surprising then solid leader, finished in 4th place. He reacted after the race: « It’s a frustrating result because the race was great today. I had a fantastic start and we were challenging the Mercedes throughout the early stages of the race. It might have even been possible to win the race if the rain hadn’t come… it would have been amazing to see that. It’s a shame to have lost positions in the rain. We waited one lap too many during the second stop: that’s where we missed the chance to be on the podium. The weather also demonstrated the car’s weakness on a wet track ».
Valtteri Bottas also struggled with the Mercedes at the start of the race, before suffering considerably with the intermediate tires. Therefore, his 5th place does not satisfy him much: « In some ways, it was an incredibly frustrating race, and in others, it was a really enjoyable moment. Both cars had a fantastic start and we were fighting against the Mercedes with a very good pace, but when the rain came, I was really in trouble with the intermediate tires. »
During the first laps, the Finnish driver, in 2nd place, attempted some overtaking maneuvers on Felipe Massa, who was dominating the race. Radio instructions from the pit wall allowed him to overtake but without taking any risks. « I received the authorization to overtake Felipe, but it was difficult to get ahead of him, and I didn’t want to make the slightest mistake ».
Performance Director at Williams, Rob Smedley, despite an insufficiently aggressive strategy, could be satisfied with the pace of his cars: « We must remain positive and proud of this result. The pace we showed this weekend was great; we experienced a wild race before the rain came. We were fighting with both our cars against the Mercedes for the majority of the race, which showed the magnitude of the work and developments we have brought to the car – and the developments all worked ».
Ferrari remains 60 points behind Williams. However, the Scuderia seems to be lagging in terms of car development and, as it did last summer, Williams emerged as the second force at Silverstone.
