2014 Review – Williams F1: The Season of Sporting Revival
In this month of December, the MotorsInside editorial team invites you to look back on the 2014 season by starting with the assessment of the teams involved this season. Ninth installment: Williams.
The 2013 season was a very chaotic season for the Grove team with a 9th place in the Constructors’ Championship.
THE DRIVERS
Valtteri Bottas – 4th in the overall standings (186 points)
Certainly one of the revelations of the season, Valtteri Bottas achieved six podiums during his second year in F1, sometimes holding his own against the Mercedes, like at the German Grand Prix where he resisted Lewis Hamilton to secure second place. Equally comfortable in qualifying, he came within a few hundredths of pole position, as during the Austrian Grand Prix qualifying where his teammate, Felipe Massa, ultimately snatched that honor from him. At the Russian Grand Prix, the Finn was close to an exploit but had to settle for a second-row start.
In racing, despite some missed opportunities at the beginning of the season, like in Australia where he hit the wall, got a puncture but still finished in the top 5, he will deliver high-level performances starting from the summer and establish himself as a natural podium contender, on par with Daniel Ricciardo, behind the two stars.
Felipe Massa – 7th in the overall championship (134 points)
Arriving at Ferrari at the start of the season, the Brazilian was eager to make people forget his last four difficult years with the Scuderia. The first half of the season is challenging: the Brazilian will notably experience four retirements due to very spectacular collisions (in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and Germany), refuse to comply with team orders during the Malaysian GP, and finally glimpse a ray of sunshine in Austria, where he will secure pole position before narrowly missing the podium.
But the second half of /f1/actualite/19173-bilan-2014-caterham-f1-plus-detincelles-en-coulisses-quen-piste.html will be of a different kind and, aside from a car far from its level in Belgium (13th) and an incongruous strategic gamble in Russia (11th), he will regularly finish in the top 5, with the highlight being the Abu Dhabi GP where he battles for victory in the closing laps against Lewis Hamilton thanks to an aggressive strategic choice. Before that, he will secure a podium in the Brazilian GP, in front of his home crowd. The second place at Yas Marina is his best result of the season and secures his 7th position in the championship. Above all, Massa has demonstrated that his commitment remains total, and Williams has logically renewed their confidence in him for the 2015 season.
L’EQUIPE
Williams-Mercedes – 3rd in the Constructors’ Championship (320 points)
The British team signs its best season since 2007 from quite a distance, with a car that has often seemed the fastest on the grid behind the Mercedes. Without a difficult start to the season, the fight with Red Bull for the second place in the constructors’ championship seemed conceivable.
Above all, Williams reconnects with the forefront and its glorious ambitions, greatly aided by the choice of equipping with the Mercedes-branded hybrid turbo V6 engine. Competing for the title is a medium-term goal, but with the funds generated by the arrival of new sponsors and successes, the Grove team holds the cards to become a disruptor against Mercedes.
PERSPECTIVES
By continuing with its duo of drivers in 2015, the experienced Massa and the promising Bottas, Williams enjoys the luxury of a welcome continuity at a time when consistently competing for victory seems more within reach than ever after seasons of struggle at the back of the pack. The future will answer whether the FW37 will be as fast or even faster than its predecessor, but optimism is warranted as regulatory stability should also encourage a certain continuity in performance.
Find all our reviews, team by team, from the season /f1/actualite/19173-bilan-2014-caterham-f1-plus-detincelles-en-coulisses-quen-piste.html:
– Caterham: Plus d’étincelles en coulisses qu’en piste
– Sauber: Une saison vierge de résultats
– Marussia: De la joie aux larmes…
– Lotus: Une saison dans les bas-fonds
– Toro Rosso: Des progrès malgré les défis à relever
– Force India: Une saison en net progrès
– McLaren: Année de transition après 20 ans avec Mercedes
– Ferrari: La fin d’une ère
