Massa: Williams is a new team

Felipe Massa will begin his second season in 2015 with the Grove team, and the Brazilian believes that the changes made to the English team make it a new outfit. This season, we must not forget the contribution of Pat Symonds and Rob Smedley to the revival of Williams. The two men also helped the team move from ninth place in the constructors’ standings in 2013 to third place this season.

The teammate of Valtteri Bottas compares, for Autosport, his current employer and his former employer from an organizational standpoint: « For me, the biggest difference from a negative point of view is that Williams’ organization is less complete. On the Ferrari side, the organization is not complete but was perhaps better organized like a big team. Williams is like a new team with many new people and they are doing a lot of different things this year compared to before, and it’s also a change in mentality. It’s an area where Williams was behind in the past, not just on Ferrari but also on some other big teams. »

The 2008 vice-world champion reflects on Williams’ technical capabilities. He believes that the aerodynamic department of the Grove team is certainly stronger than Ferrari’s, and according to him, it is this aspect that has contributed to Williams’ progress throughout the 2014 season.

« I think that Williams functions very well in the field of aerodynamics. The car progressed from the first to the last race during the season – their rate of improvement was probably higher than any other team. I think it has been a fantastic job in aerodynamics, chassis, settings, on the technical side and also in many areas. It’s something that hasn’t worked for many years at Ferrari, so it was positive for the [English] team. We still need to continue improving the organization of the team but it’s something that won’t change overnight, » he concluded.