Williams is going to be a challenge for Mercedes and Renault – Sam Michael
Besides the front-running Red Bull, Williams was the only team to see both drivers of finish at the dramatic Singapore Grand Prix in the points. Williams’ rivals Renault, Mercedes GP and Force India saw just one driver reach the top ten. Keeping in mind
Rubens Barrichello had a poor start and Nico Hulkenberg got a post-race penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage on the opening lap, the team made positive progress and scored some vital championship points. Technical director Sam enjoyed the
race and told the press the vicissitudes of the race.
The team accepted the decision made by the FIA stewards regarding Nico Hulkenberg’s 20-second penalty followed by a protest by team Force India. The Singapore Grand Prix was a positive weekend for the Williams team as it showed that the team has made good
progress with the FW32. The team has been very competitive at a variety of different track layouts and the recent results prove it. The team hopes to continue its performance for the remaining races this season.
It seemed that Nico Hulkenberg was facing some problems on Friday, as he required a new gearbox and a new engine before qualifying. Michael said that Nico’s car was having a differential problem after Monza. The team was penalised for five places on the grid
for the Singapore Grand Prix due to this and the team then suspected a water leak on the engine the team intended to use for the race so they had to change that as well. However, this did not demand a penalty as the Nico is still inside the eight engines a
season limit. Williams will check the engine and the cooling system when the team receives new parts.
Rubens made a very poor start so he had to take some risks on the first lap to minimise the damage. Fortunately, he was able to maintain momentum after the second safety car as it did not affect his race at all.
The technical director thinks that the FW32 can take on the Renault and Mercedes at every circuit as the team is constantly performing very well and that is certainly the aim.
The team expects that since the past couple of races, Williams’ objective for the Japanese Grand Prix has been to get both cars in the top ten in both qualifying and race in order to score some good points and beat their rivals.
Williams has been performing extremely well this season and they have been a nuisance for their rivals Renault, Mercedes and Force India. This year has been very unpredictable in terms of team performance. All the teams have stepped up and scored some good
points. One can say that this is mainly because of the new points system that allows the 10th placeholder to score some points as well. This regulation has enabled all the teams to score at least something. The bottom three teams did not score any
points as they were introduced this year. Other than that, 9 teams have scored points and the teams are looking more competitive than ever this season. Williams is currently in 7th place with 57 points just 5 points behind Force India in 6th
place. The drivers and constructors’ championships are both very close this year with fights for places all around the table. Rubens Barrichello is in 11th place just 7 points behind the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher while his teammate
Nico Hulkenberg is currently in 14th place with 18 points.
The table is filled with points this year. It has been years since the Formula 1 saw the point scoring drivers until the 18th place marker in the drivers’ standings. The Japanese grand prix is the next race on the Formula 1 calendar and Williams
has increased the pressure on its championship rivals Force India. Force India will have to step it up if they want to keep their 6th place in the constructors’ championship.
Tags: