Mid-season review – Williams: On a downward spiral this season

The important numbers

Position in the constructors’ standings: 4th

Pole: 0

Podium: 1

Victory: 0

Best result: 3rd (Bottas: Canada)

Best qualification: 3rd (Bottas: Russia)

One ride is enough

Performant in qualifying, Williams shows signs of weakness during races, as evidenced by its average qualifying position around 8th place and its lower 11th place in the race lap times ranking. Returning to the European stages has meant a step back for the team. Thus, Bottas only secured three 9th places (Austria, Hungary, Germany) while Massa was placed beyond the 10th rank or retired (Austria, Germany). Despite this, Williams demonstrates its solidity and, apart from the Monaco stage which is seemingly not to the British car’s liking, the team has always reached Q3. In this exercise, the match between Bottas and Massa is indisputable since the Finn overwhelmingly dominates the Brazilian in qualifying with a score of 10-2. While Bottas missed Q3 only twice, Massa did not participate in it during five weekends.

As the season progresses, we see that Williams falls back in the standings in both qualifying and races due to less significant development on the FW38 compared to other teams. Bottas remains consistent in Q3 but gradually slips back, and despite his greater consistency and increased Q3 appearances, Massa cannot outperform his teammate, and his car holds him back in races. The Grove team remains a top team, but the difficulty they experience in developing improvements for their FW38 greatly hinders their fight to maintain 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Less and less consistent results

The inaugural race in Australia puts the British team in a good early season momentum, with Massa and Bottas, starting 6th and 11th, both improving and finishing in 5th and 8th places. The Williams machine seems to be working well, and the points brought home are piling up, even if the race times in Bahrain and China do not match the results. In Russia, the car proves to be particularly competitive, with Bottas starting 3rd and Massa right behind his teammate on the grid in 5th place. At the finish, Williams achieves a close finish just off the podium, with the Finnish-Brazilian pair in 4th and 5th. It’s the best combined result of the season for the team.

The Mercedes engine not doing everything, Williams faces its greatest challenge in Monaco, a winding and slow circuit. For the first and only time of the year, the team does not make it to Q3, with Bottas, still more performing than his teammate, failing to reach 11th, synonymous with elimination. At the end of the 78 laps, Massa takes the advantage and snatches the point for 10th place. After the winding round in Monaco, the paddock heads to the new continent, to the fast circuit of Montreal. This circuit suits the FW38 well, especially Bottas. In qualifying, the seventh and eighth places suggest a good race. However, Massa has to face his first retirement shortly after mid-race. In contrast, Bottas delivers a great performance and matches his result from last season by climbing to the 3rd step of the podium.

In the wake of the Canadian Grand Prix marking a turning point for Felipe Massa, Austria becomes the stage for another retirement for the Brazilian, while Bottas secures a difficult 9th place, ahead of the remarkable Pascal Wehrlein, who delivered Manor’s first point of the season. At Silverstone, Williams seems off pace; despite usual qualifying form, track conditions result in the team’s first pointless Grand Prix of the season: Massa finishes 11th and Bottas a nondescript 14th. Like Monaco, the Hungaroring is not a circuit for Williams. Massa loses the car in Q1, ends up in the wall at turn 4, and finishes 18th. Subsequently, Bottas manages to scrape into Q3 and starts 10th. By the finish, Bottas ends up 9th and Massa 18th. The return to Hockenheim is unfortunate for Massa, who retires again, and Bottas can only bring back two points for 9th place.

The pilots’ report

As in previous seasons, the pair Valtteri Bottas – Felipe Massa seems to work well. Similarly, the hierarchy between the two drivers remains unchanged; Bottas continues to be more competitive than Massa and gives the team their only podium in this first part of the season, in Canada. The Finn is, along with Daniel Ricciardo, the only driver not to have retired yet this season. He has a greater fortune compared to his teammate, who has had to retire three times (Canada, Austria, Germany). The Brazilian is unfortunately well-acquainted with mishaps during races, whether due to collisions or mechanical failures, which explains his lower results and somewhat of a tendency to lag behind his teammates. This has been evident since his move to Williams in 2014, where Bottas, who was only in his second F1 season, concluded the season with 52 more points than Massa.

If no announcement has yet been made by Williams regarding its drivers for 2017, it’s hard to imagine Sir Frank Williams letting Valtteri Bottas go, who, at 26 years old, has been delivering the best performances for the team since his arrival in Grove in 2013. On the other hand, for Massa, job security is not the same. The 35-year-old Brazilian is showing performances below what Williams expects, and even though the FW38 does not seem to be a gift, Bottas managed to secure a podium this season. While he does not imagine his career is over, he must be concerned about the statements made by his team regarding Jenson Button, who could be in the Williams seat in his place in 2017.

A Surge of Expected Pride

Despite its status as a top-team and a strong third place in the Constructors’ standings in the past two seasons, Frank Williams’ team is on the decline this season. The FW38 is much less competitive than its predecessors, and the Mercedes engine can no longer compensate for all the development deficiencies of the car this season.

Unlike several teams that are progressing – like its direct competitors Force India and, to a lesser extent, Toro Rosso and McLaren – Williams, if not regressing, is almost stagnant in terms of development, and the reliability of the parts no longer seems sufficient to maintain its fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship. The Grove team must perform better in the second half of the season if it doesn’t want to be overtaken by Force India.