AT&T Williams’ Sam Michael satisfied despite sixth place ranking
AT&T Williams’ technical director Sam Michael was satisfied with having achieved his goal of beating Force India for sixth place at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. With a twelfth place ranking for Rubens Barrichello, and 16th for Nico Hulkenberg in Abu Dhabi,
Michael remained optimistic.
In an interview with F1’s official website, Michael asserted that keeping the sixth place position was important because the standing directly impacts the team’s FOM income for the next season.
Michael defended his racer’s performance saying that, “Both drivers have done a good job for the team and we’re pleased with the contribution they’ve made over the year.”
Commenting on Barrichello getting the seventh place position, despite difficulty with the handle on his car during Friday practice, Michael told reporters that this had a lot to do with the track being green on Friday, and better circuit conditions on Saturday.
He said that some maintenance and extra tyre training was required, “we also tuned the rear wing level which helped to improve our pace.”
Michael explained in the interview that Hulkenberg, who came in slightly slower that Barrichello, had some trouble getting his set of tyres through the right window, maintaining that he was, “Very close to Ruben during the practice session.”
Finally, Michael congratulated Sebastian Vettel on his world title success. Summing up overall performance of the FW32 in 2010 Michael told the website that although the year got off to a slow start, the team now has a better understanding of their car.
“That should enable us to carry the momentum into 2011,” he told the site.
Michaels saw his team’s performance at Yas Marina last week as satisfactory, telling F1 that their qualifying pace was good, he reiterated that they had achieved their main objective, “Our target was pretty clear: to cover Force India, even if it meant losing
points to other teams in the top 10.”
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