Williams: Massa Confident for the Second Half of the Season
Freshly arrived at Williams this season, not everything has been perfect for Felipe Massa, especially in Hungary, but the Brazilian is optimistic for the rest of the 2014 season.
Felipe Massa has not delivered top performances since the start of the year with Williams, notably with several collisions in the first lap like in Germany, but the Brazilian hopes that Williams can do even better in the second half of the season.
In 2013, Williams had scored only 5 points – with a 10th place and an 8th place, but this year Williams already has 135 points after 11 races, which places the Grove team in 4th position in the constructors’ championship.
During the last Hungarian Grand Prix just before the break, Williams encountered problems with managing the Pirelli tires on this winding circuit. But Felipe Massa remains optimistic for the upcoming races, as he believes the FW36 should be better suited to the next circuits.
The current improvements to the Williams should allow the Brazilian to get closer to the Mercedes so that they can be challenged, as he stated quoted by GPupdate.net: « I am sure we can have a very good second half of the season if we look at how the car has performed so far. Spa and Monza should suit us, maybe Austin and Brazil [as well], and in Abu Dhabi there are some straights. The car can be competitive on many tracks, not just at Spa and Monza, but maybe on those, we can be stronger. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible that on these circuits, we have a better chance against Mercedes. »
Before the Hungarian Grand Prix, Williams was in 3rd position in the constructors’ standings before being overtaken by Ferrari. Felipe Massa remains convinced that Williams can reclaim its position from Ferrari and even surpass Red Bull despite currently trailing by 84 points: « When you do the math and see that it’s possible, then why not? We have to fight for it. We must try to do everything we can. If we do a perfect job from now until the last race, then anything is possible. »
Rob Smedley, who followed Massa and Ferrari to Williams, shares the same opinion as his driver and is optimistic, as quoted by Autosport, that the difficulties encountered during the Hungarian race will not reoccur: « Our goal is to be second in the championship, and that remains achievable. I think we had a race that was a bit abnormal if you look at our results over the last five races. We have two races [at Spa and Monza] coming up where we need to capitalize on the car’s characteristics. We believe these tracks will suit us. We need to capitalize on this and put ourselves in a good position. »
