Williams “very happy” despite engine failure

2014 F1 season

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Williams were very pleased with their position at the end of testing despite losing time due to an engine failure on the final day of running in Bahrain.

The Mercedes engine in Valtteri Bottas’s car expired before the end of his race simulation run during today’s test.

Chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson described it as a “high mileage” failure. “With the number of laps we have put on it, it wasn’t a big surprise,” he said, “but it was still a shame that Valtteri couldn’t get that final chance to push.”

“However, with an overall team total of 936 laps under our belt, we are still pleased that that is the only time the FW36 has stopped on track throughout testing,” he continued.

“We end the pre-season running feeling very happy with the car, power unit, drivers and team. Everything is working together as it should and we are pleased with the direction that the team is going in.”

Bottas said the team had done as much pre-season work as they could have expected to: “I think with this amount of testing we are as prepared for Melbourne as we can be.”

“We still need to work very hard in these next two weeks but I overall I’m happy with how testing has gone for us,” he added. “As I didn’t have the chance to do a quick time on the super-soft tyre today, I am looking forward to picking up where we left off when we get to Melbourne.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Williams “very happy” despite engine failure”

  1. They should be happy. Massa is driving like it’s 2007 all over again, Bottas still looks like a star of the future, they successfully gambled on striking a new partnership with Mercedes at the expense of the nostalgic Williams-Renault combo, they’ve got a winning technical director who is back in the sport after years in exile, and they’ve just signed a sponsorship deal with one of the most recognizable brands in auto racing history.

    They haven’t looked this good since they were the works BMW team.

  2. I’m waiting to buy some apparel with out the PDVSA sponsorship and with the Martini sponsorship! Get to it!

    But yes, I’m very happy and excited for them.

    1. Williams to show Martini livery on March 6th. Can’t wait!!

  3. And Felipe should be happiest of all. After getting dumped by Ferrari and treated like a second class citizen for years, he’s finally in a place where he can shine, maybe.
    But he has a bit of a delicate personality so they better make him feel loved or he’ll start to fade again. Not being mean, just honestly assessing the situation.

    1. People say ‘dumped’ as though Ferrari getting rid of Massa was unfair. There treatment of him up until this point may have been harsh, but he hasn’t helped himself by being so inferior to Alonso, and it amazes me that they didn’t lose him as long ago as 2010 (or at least 2011).

      1. There treatment

        *Their

      2. CARLOS DELIRA
        2nd March 2014, 17:23

        I don’t think is fair to criticize Massa now, after he did such a good job in this pre-season tests! Give him a chance and believe me is a very good driver (12 wins and 14 poles)!

        1. What makes you think he’s done a good job in tests? It’s very hard to tell how well a driver is doing in such a situation. I’m curious to see how he’ll do this season, but I definitely think it’s fair to say that Massa deserved to lose his Ferrari seat.

      3. I can only agree with you on that one!

        Massas lowpoint for me was Spa 2011, where he missed so many apexes, in particular at the bus stop chicane, that it wasn’t funny; I literally cringed, when I saw the onboard the other day.

        I have never been a fan of his, but he was pretty handy before his accident, and I only wish him well in his new role. Most of all, I wish for succes for Good old Frank and his team. Maybe the Williams-Mercedes-Martini team will be the Williams-Renault-Rothmanns of the 2010´s. The sound of the name alone just sounds right, and I can only imagine the Martini stripes slinging around the IMO not too shabby, but rather spiffy looking Willians.

      4. I still hold the belief that Massa was gonna get dropped at the end of 2009 for an Alonso Raikkonen partnership, but after his accident, Ferrari couldn’t afford the public backlash to drop him.
        I really hope he does well at Williams this year.

        1. I don’t know who they would have actually dropped without the accident. Given Ferrari’s history and logical sense, I thought it was mad that they kept him on over Raikkonen in the first place, considering how unknown his recovery was going to be.

      5. @matt90 You’re right, I really shouldn’t say Ferrari dumped him as I would have done the same thing long since if I was them.
        My problem is that they seemed to treat him as a second class citizen and Felipe’s ego is not strong enough to take that over time. He clearly needs to be loved and supported or he will not drive his best and they undermined his ego rather than helped him.
        In the end, both are at fault as Massa needed to man up if he was going to compete in a sport at the top of the world like F1. It didn’t help that he had the terrible wreck…but he should have retired if his confidence could no longer support it. I’m not being critical because I certainly couldn’t do it!
        For their part, Ferrari should have either cut him loose long ago so he could go to another team or not disrespected him publicly. It was just handled poorly on all sides…at least from the outside looking in.
        Behind the scenes, one or the other may have been much more at fault but regardless it was painful to watch.
        It would be good to see both go in their separate ways and do well. It would be really cool to see Felipe succeed and help Williams back to the top! And I have nothing against Ferrari (I can’t or I’d have to fight with my girlfriend 24×7 LOL).

  4. So far, all the other team quotes are being cautious, and not particularly positive. Williams, on the other hand, come out and say that they are very happy. What’s more is the times seem to back this up. Williams could be seen as back on the up now…

  5. It would be great to see Massa performing to his true potential he did really seem to loose the plot ,but he’s obvoiusly an emotional guy and the combination of loosing the WDC the way he did ,the serious accident ,all those coming togethers with Lewis and constantly having to defer to Alonso didn’t do his performaces and reputation a lot of good. If he gets some good results this year he surely will need to race closely with Lewis again lets hope he they can both keep their cool. I’m a big fan of both drivers.

  6. Last years were such a low, it’s great if they can recover somehow! I’m glad for the pilots too, both good drivers and decent men, a nice team, 2014 may be a good season for them !

  7. Zain Siddiqui (@powerslidepowerslide)
    2nd March 2014, 17:51

    Felipe must win a race this year! He must!

  8. Happy definitely seems the best word to describe Williams at the moment. Pretty much everything that comes out of them just sounds cheerful. This goes for both of the drivers too, they really seem like they’re enjoying themselves and seem to get on really well. It could all be staged, but it seems genuine. Right from the first test, Massa took a video on his phone of Bottas taking the Williams out of the garage for the first time. He seemed genuinely excited. Its been nice to see both drivers there on the majority of the testing days, regardless of whether they were driving.

  9. I’m not hoping for anything from Williams. Testing is testing and racing is racing and I have been burned too many times by reading into test times too much.

    That said – I like the test results this winter :D

  10. I feel bad for Valtteri that he did not get a chance to go for some flying laps on the super softs. I would imagine that the drivers love that part of testing the most. Also, he did all those laps during the pit stop practice; he deserved the reward of going for a fastest time.

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