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The opening
series of races for the 2014 Formula One season has seen the Williams
Martini team secure points to allow it to currently be fifth in the
Constructors championship, a vast improvement over their 2013 season. In the
lead up to the Monaco Grand Prix Head of Vehicle Performance, Rob Smedley
has spoken of his belief that the team can continue their good start to the
season.
Williams lies fifth, ahead
of McLaren, after five races, and Smedley was encouraged by
the developments that were run on the car at the recent Spanish Grand Prix
and the two day test after the event to feel that more points are likely in Monte Carlo.
After the Spanish Grand Prix Smedley commented on where the team is at by
saying:
“Our cup is half full. Well, its more than half full, its
three-quarters full as we came here waiting to see how much the upgrades
would work and, ultimately, they've been very successful. It's a downforce
track, very difficult on the tyres, and I think you saw that the car worked
very well. It was third quickest so, ultimately, we're very, very pleased
with that.”
Smedley added:
“I think, based on the result [in Barcelona], I'm slightly more optimistic
than I was. I think we've come here with all the new package on the car and
that's generated downforce, it's gone well. Monaco's a
rear-limited circuit, so we will wear out the rear tyres and that will be
what stops us [making progress] in the race, so it's just a case of making
our rears go longer than anybody else.
“It's a strange race, with lots of quirks to it, one where you don't have to
have the fastest car to win – although, with the speed or the fastest car
this year, it will be difficult to beat it! Let's say that I am reasonably
confident that we can have a good result. But it's about where Williams is
at the minute, about getting points. We're getting points, getting decent
points, although we seem to have flat-lined at the moment at ten points per
race. But that's good - if we keep doing that from every race from now to
the end of the season, its almost 200 points. I'm reasonably happy, but we
have to keep progressing as we are.”
Smedley is also pleased to see how development being carried out at the
factory is translating into gains on the track.
“Every single bit we bring to the track, we get onto the car, and …. that's
been the same from the start of the season,” he noted, “We bring it, we do
our due diligence and go through our full testing process on a Friday
afternoon - and Saturday morning if need be - but the nature of the beast at
the minute is that the correlation from here to the wind tunnel is very
impressive and the car is improving from race to race. That, for me, and
compared to my experience, is very, very impressive.” |
