Williams: Massa doubts having the same engine as the Mercedes
Felipe Massa expressed his doubts about the hybrid engines supplied by Mercedes to Williams, suggesting that they might be less efficient than those of the official team.
For the first Grand Prix of the 2015 season, in Australia, Felipe Massa finished just off the podium, dominated by the Mercedes and trailing behind Sebastian Vettel in a Ferrari.
In qualifying, Williams was a second behind, and in the race, the Grove car was relegated to 38 seconds behind. Enough to make the Paulista doubt the engine supply of his team: « We rely heavily on the engine which, I am sure, has seen some improvements that we can have and that we are trying to get, because, for sure, the difference is too big. So I really hope we actually have the same engine, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be the case. »
« Why would Mercedes help Ferrari? So we need to have the best [engine] they can give us, and we will work on it. In the car, we know that in every race and every point you don’t score, it counts, » he stated to ESPN F1.
Even if he is not certain of his hypothesis, he appeals to Mercedes: « If we don’t have the same engine – which I can’t say 100% because it’s very difficult to tell – […] then we want it because it’s a shame not to have it. »
For Massa, the Ferrari hybrid block couldn’t have gained that much performance between 2014 and 2015: « Who finished fifth? Sauber. They came from nowhere and didn’t have money to invest in the car. It’s a team that hasn’t invested much in the car and they have improved tremendously, I think it comes from something else. If you see how the [2014] season ended and where they are now, it’s a big leap, that’s for sure. »
« Without looking at the times, you look at the speed. At the end of last year, we were 10, 12, or 15 km/h faster than Ferrari, now they are just as fast and maybe even a bit more than us, » he concluded.
As a reminder, the regulations stipulate that an engine manufacturer can only have one engine homologated per season, theoretically preventing differences between the units supplied to the teams.
