Valtteri Bottas believe Williams are in strong shape for the first race of the season after leading the final day of pre-season testing.
“It was a really good day and a great way to finish the test,” said Bottas. “The car we are taking to Melbourne is very competitive and should make for an interesting start to the season.”
The FW37 is a “really quick and reliable car”, Bottas added.
Williams spent their final day of pre-season testing concentrating on their car’s performance. Mercedes were the only team to set a quicker time the Williams during the combined eight days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
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Dante
1st March 2015, 17:35
I’m very happy for them, horrible nose aside. It’s a shame though, that being a customer team they have zero chance of winning a championship in the near future (though, it seems that apply to every team not called Mercedes atm).
Still, they obviously quite strong aerodynamically, so I hope these seasons of “rebirth” helps them get the sponsors/development they need to get another engine provider for 2017 and actually challenge for a title.
On that note, we need more engine providers in F1. The hybrid rules seems to be fantastic and road-relevant, but the silly development freezes/tokens don’t exactly do wonders for newcomers. Ask Honda.
pastaman (@)
1st March 2015, 18:24
Zero chance? So how did they win all their previous championships?
Dante
1st March 2015, 18:36
@pastaman I meant against Mercedes. I should have specified that, though I thought it was obvious going by the context. Apparently it wasn’t, so my fault.
Dante
1st March 2015, 18:41
@pastaman It should also be noted that, if my memory doesn’t fail, none of their engine providers had teams of their own when Williams won their championship.
That was one of the reasons (if not the reason) while McLaren changed Mercedes for Honda:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116449
While not impossible (see RBR over Renault) it’s an uncommon occurrence.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
2nd March 2015, 6:00
@pastaman
Williams were the Renault works team in the 90’s and Honda’s works team in the mid-80’s. They were the BMW works team in the early 2000’s. Now they are not the works team.
Edgar
1st March 2015, 17:40
Hoping for a win with Felipe.
His last one was so long ago.
He deserves it. And so does Williams.
Park
1st March 2015, 18:00
Personally, I don’t regard the second best (actually nowhere near the best) as something “very” competitive
Williams cut the gap to around 0.5s at the end of 2014, and now the gap is around nine tenth. In the end, much less budget and over 200 less engineers have played their parts.
Dante
1st March 2015, 18:48
So… in 2015 we’ll only have one competitive team (Mercedes), according to you?
I don’t think that is the point of having the word “competitive”.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
1st March 2015, 18:50
Good chances for them to end the season in second or third place; that’s still a bit of competitiveness, isn’t it?
Kingshark (@kingshark)
2nd March 2015, 6:01
Depends on your definition of competitive.
Williams were the second best team in 2002, nowhere near Ferrari though, did you consider Williams to be “competitive” in 2002? Because I did.
park
2nd March 2015, 9:27
Don’t misunderstand me, guys. “very competitive” is not equal to “competitive”, isn’t it?
Wiliams is now competitive, but I just hope they would really be very competitive this year.