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SYNOPSIS
After minor reliability issues had compromised track time and thereby the
optimisation of set-up two weeks before in Malaysia, the AT&T Williams team
came to Bahrain with a clear ambition to manage their weekend preparations
without undue interruption. This goal was met, with both cars having a full
180 minutes of potential track time in the Friday sessions. Between the
morning and afternoon sessions, significant set-up changes were made to both
Kazuki’s and Nico’s car and by the close of the first day of the meeting,
both drivers declared themselves satisfied with the progress made.
On
Saturday morning Nico Rosberg, running on new tyres and low fuel, was able
to set the fastest time of the session, but it was understood that on a
longer run the competitiveness required to be at the top of the time sheets
would be much more of a challenge.
 Qualifying was relatively straightforward tactically, with no interruptions
or flags that required run plans to be altered on the fly. Rosberg held
station in P8 in all three qualifying sessions, somewhat less competitive
than perhaps both driver and team had hoped for given the morning practice.
By the time fuel had been added for Q3, Nico’s Q2 time that would have given
him pole increased by almost two seconds and he would line up on the fourth
row of the grid on Sunday.
Kazuki, by his own admission, was disappointed by his qualifying form,
albeit that in only his fourth race it would have been difficult to progress
into Q3 when his more experienced team mate had managed to finish the day in
only P8. Based on the qualifying outcome, the strategists elected to send
Kazuki on a one-stop strategy and Nico on a more conventional two-stop plan
for the race. Unfortunately for Nakajima, his anti-stall system kicked in
off the line and relegated him down towards the back of the field. Trying to
recover his poor
start, he hit the oil on lap two which caused a number of drivers problems
in the early part of the first stint. Rosberg claimed a place from the start
and held P7 until the first round of stops where he was unfortunately jumped
by Webber in the Red Bull.
This was due to Webber having a free choice of
pit strategy after starting outside the top 10, and then getting past Alonso
following the Renault driver’s clash with Hamilton. Knowing that, it would
have been better to have run longer in the first stint, but that decision is
made on Saturday afternoon if you’re in the top 10. Ultimately, Rosberg
claimed a point finishing in eighth, while Kazuki pitted on his one stop
plan on lap 32 and ran to the flag to finish
fourteenth.
TYRES & FUEL
Nico Rosberg Medium-Soft-Soft
Stop 1: lap 17, stop 2: lap 40
Kazuki Nakajima Medium-Soft
Stop 1: lap 32
SYSTEMS & RELIABILITY
The team’s two FW30s ran reliably throughout all the sessions in Sakhir.
Both cars ran new engines for the Bahrain Grand Prix and both completed
their third race in succession on the same transmission (regulatory
requirement is to complete four races in a row).
NEXT EVENTS
The team will travel to Barcelona next week for a four day test commencing
on Monday 14th April. Kazuki Nakajima will run on days one and four, with
team mate Nico Rosberg undertaking testing duties on days two and three. The
team will use the test to validate a number of new developments, both aero
and mechanical, to come to the car for the start of the European season.
SAM MICHAEL
“Although we managed to avoid any reliability issues compromising our
preparation, this will remain a watching brief for obvious reasons. There is
no room for complacency with reliability. Our focus as always is on
improving performance and that’s what we are doing now we are back in
Europe. We have a good number of new releases coming to the car for the
start of the European season which we will test in Barcelona next week.” |
