Japanese GP : Williams F1 GP Debrief

The team added to its points tally at the Japanese Grand Prix with an eighth place finish for Pastor Maldonado. As the team heads on to Korea, our Chief Operations Engineer, Mark Gillan, gives us his thoughts.

Q. How satisfying was Pastor's eighth place in the Japanese Grand Prix?
MG. It was very pleasing to secure the four points, but as a team our goal this year is to get both cars home in the points at all races, so there is still work to be done.

Q. Bruno's true pace was masked by incidents in qualifying and the race. How was his pace when he was running in clear air?
MG. Bruno had a good start but unfortunately got tangled up in an incident at the beginning of the race which led to him having to come in for an unscheduled pitstop for a new front wing and a subsequent drive-through for contact with Rosberg. Despite these two additional stops Bruno remained focused and was very quick in terms of race pace which gives us and him additional confidence going into Korea.

Q. How easy was it to set-up the FW34 for the high-speed demands of Suzuka?
MG. To be honest we struggled a little in qualifying set-up but had a much better race car come Sunday.

Q. Resurfacing work had been carried out at the track since 2011. How did the new asphalt affect performance?
MG. It did not really seem to affect our performance, although we did see a few other drivers making mistakes at T13.

Q. Some teams were worried about tyre wear during the race. How much of an issue was it on the FW34?
MG. We suffered a number of blisters during the event and tyre wear was an issue, but it was under control and communication with the drivers and engineers during the race in terms of tyre management was excellent.

Q. The Korean Grand Prix comes next. What are your hopes for next weekend?
MG. Simply, we want to get both cars home in the points.

Championship Tables After 15 of 20 Races

Drivers
1 F Alonso 	194 
2 S Vettel	 	190 	
3 K Raikkonen 	157 	
4 L Hamilton 	152
5 M Webber 	134
6 J Button		131
7 N Rosberg 	93
8 R Grosjean 	82
9 F Massa 	69
10 S Perez	66

Constructors
1 Red Bull Racing-Renault 	324
2 McLaren-Mercedes 		283
3 Ferrari 			263
4 Lotus-Renault 		239
5 Mercedes 		136
6 Sauber Ferrari 		116
7 Force India-Mercedes 	81
8 Williams-Renault 		58
9 STR-Ferrari		15
10 Caterham-Renault		0