After many cold and often windy days in Jerez and Barcelona and with 1069 laps completed, Williams Martini Racing managed to rack up the best mileage of any team which attended the testing.
The form book for the new season doesn’t look to have changed from last season too much. After Mercedes it is a tightly-knit pack between Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull. Therefore the team are confident that they can still be second best behind the Silver Arrows and are planning on hunting them down as the season goes on.
Valtteri Bottas’ 1:23:063 in the second test at Barcelona on the supersoft tyres shows they have great pace, but with Rosberg’s fastest time of a 1:22:792 set on the medium tyre it’s clear to see that there is still a large gap to close to the champions; if you take roughly a second between the tyres and take fuel loads into consideration, it’s clear to see the challenge that lies ahead for Williams.
After last year’s slow start in which Williams failed to pick up anywhere near the points they could have and should have done, both Felipe and Valtteri will be looking to hit the ground running at the start of the 2015 season. Valtteri will certainly be looking to make amends in Australia, where he was so close to the podium last year but for a crash into the wall and a punctured tyre.
Felipe himself had a slow start to the 2014 season and with bad luck and missed opportunities, such as those in Canada and Germany, spoiling his points total he’ll be looking to bounce back in 2015. He is integrated into the team a lot more now and comfortable in the car. I think we will now see the Felipe Massa of old at Williams and this season he should give Bottas much more of a run for his money. Having the two perform this year will be crucial if they want to challenge Mercedes for the Constructors’ title.
The FW37 looks to be a great step forward from its predecessor and this creates an opportunity for the team to go one better in 2015, and perhaps they will pick up the win that they failed to secure last season.
Although I know the main focus will be on Mercedes still this season, be on the lookout for this team from Grove making a bigger charge than ever to get to the top of F1 once more.
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