Sam Michael: Williams hoping to get over its front wing problems – Formula 1 news
Technical director of team Williams Sam Michael has said that the team is going to focus on its car’s front wing mostly in order to improve its performance at the upcoming races of the 2011 Formula 1 season.
“The basis of the car should be good enough to fight for fourth place behind the three top teams. We are taking a new version to Turkey and we will go further with this concept in Barcelona and Monte Carlo. We have discovered in the wind tunnel a new development
direction for the front wing. The step in Turkey will already be quite big,” said Michael.
The team was looking pretty good until the pre-season testing period. However, since the season opening 2011 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, where both of the team’s drivers were unable to finish the race, it seems that the team is struggling to compete
alongside the mid-running teams of the sport.
Michael however believes that the main reason for their disappointing performance so far is the front wing of their new car. He believes that Williams are facing the same problem Ferrari were facing before as the wind tunnel data differed from the one obtained
on the tracks.
“At the factory we have seen a lot of progress in every area, but not all of it has been seen at the track. Mercedes has had up to 7kph more (top speed) than us. That's the other side of the coin, with our new [rear] wing we hope to get it just right,” he
added.
Williams are yet to score a point this season as both of its drivers Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado have been unable to deliver a single promising performance statistically.
Other than that, it was quite disappointing for the team when Maldonado was beaten by one of the Lotus drivers at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The next race of the 2011 Formula 1 season is scheduled to take place in Turkey. Let’s hope Williams manage to fix the issues with the front wing of their car and put up a better show in Istanbul.
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