Spain was an interesting race for Williams: Valtteri Bottas pulled out a class performance to equal his best result in F1; his teammate struggled massively all weekend and finished a lowly 13th. With his former race engineer Rob Smedley on board from Ferrari, Massa is hoping for much better at Monaco.
Remarkably, despite their domination in many periods of F1, Williams only have three wins here: one for Carlos Reutemann in 1980; one for Keke Rosberg in ’83 and one for Juan Pablo Montoya in 2003. Nigel Mansell came incredibly close in 1992, but a puncture, and then some sensational defensive driving by Ayrton Senna denied him.
Underdogs at Monaco
Strictly speaking, this is a circuit that doesn’t really suit the characteristics of the Williams too much: hardly any straights; lots of slow speed corners; and so on. However, I think the Williams cars will be the ones to watch behind the battle of the Silver Arrows and the charging Red Bulls. Getting a good start is vital here. Massa has already shown on more than one occasion this season that he can make several places from the grid and Bottas had a great start last time in Spain. Should they replicate that here they could find themselves in the top 5 by lap one or maybe even higher. Tyre degradation is not as much of an issue here as at other races, although the allocation is the Super Soft (red-striped) and Soft (yellow-striped) Pirelli tyre, the fact that there are really only two high-speed corners on the circuit, the tunnel and Tabac, means that front wear isn’t much of an issue. With so much power, however, looking after the rears will not be so easy. Despite this, I think with the two very good drivers that Williams have, they may be able to deliver a strong result at Monaco. Should the front runners get into trouble, they may even sneak that elusive podium, something that hasn’t been achieved here since Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber both appeared on it in 2005.
No. 19 Felipe Massa (BRA) – 12th
Form: R/7/7/15/13
2013 (Driving for Ferrari): Grid: P21 (Did not set a time), Race: Retired – Suspension failure
Massa took pole here in 2008 but failed to convert it into a win. He had a torrid time last year so will be hoping for better. He hasn’t finished higher than third in Monaco before and I think it will be a tall order for him to match or improve on that this year with Red Bull and Mercedes looking so strong. Getting a good start would help him get some much needed points, however, as he’s starting to fall behind quite notably in the Drivers’ Championship.
No. 77 Valtteri Bottas (FIN) – 7th
Form: 5/8/8/7/5
2013: Grid: P14, Race: P12
Bottas had a pretty solid run in Monaco last year, getting into Q2 and finishing the race just a few seconds behind what would have been his first points in the unfancied Williams. That was his first appearance at Monaco, so he will be hoping to score more solid points this time around; something he’s done in every race so far this season. Nico Rosberg is the only other driver to finish every race in the top 8 so far this season.
With Bottas’s points in Spain, Williams have moved ahead of McLaren now into fifth in the Constructors’ standings, and showed worryingly good pace compared to the Force India cars, who lie fourth. Given that Williams have finished the last three years in 9th, 8th and 9th, I think should they manage fourth at the end of the year it would be a remarkable achievement. The drivers need to deliver each race though, as McLaren and Force India both have excellent drivers too.
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