Maldonado and Williams approach Monaco “full of confidence”

Even though Mark Gillan, chief operations engineer at Williams, considers the Monaco Grand Prix to be one of the toughest of the season, he hopes to see both his drivers finish in the points on Sunday: The 78-lap race on the very demanding 3.34km Monaco circuit, recently resurfaced in some areas, is unique and undoubtedly one of the most rigorous tests of the season for both the drivers and the team, with no margin for error possible. Following Pastor [Maldonado]’s victory in Barcelona, both our drivers are eager to get back on track and hope to bring both cars into the points on Sunday afternoon.

Pastor Maldonado, who is coming off a victory in Barcelona, believes he can have a competitive car on the streets of the Principality and hopes to use it to achieve another good result: Monaco is a very demanding circuit for drivers both physically and mentally because you need constant concentration, but I really enjoy this challenge and have done quite well here in the past. I am full of confidence after my victory in the last race, so I am going to Monaco with high hopes of achieving another good result for the team.

Bruno Senna hopes to forget his Spanish disappointment. The Brazilian driver appreciates the layout of the Monaco circuit and would like to achieve a good result there to bounce back: Monaco is one of my favorite circuits because even though it’s a city circuit, there is a nice flow and when you get the right combination you can really put in some good laps. I’ve had good results here in the past and hopefully, this trend will continue this weekend and we can score big points.

Mark Gillan also reflected on the damage suffered by the Williams team from the fire in the team’s garage in Barcelona, which ultimately did not significantly disrupt the preparations of the Grove team: The team’s preparations for Monaco were hindered by the fire in our garage, but the impact of the fire was mitigated by what can only be described as a Herculean effort by the entire factory and all our suppliers to replace the damaged equipment and parts. We would also like to thank the generous offers of help from other teams, once again highlighting the excellent sportsmanship that exists in Formula 1 and the high level of camaraderie within the pit lane.

Pirelli will supply the super-softs to the teams for the first time this season, and Gillan knows that tire management will once again be a challenge, as will the qualifying session: This is the first race of the year where we have both soft and super-soft tires available, and the weather forecasts predict a dry weekend. As always in Monaco, qualifying will be crucial, just like the race strategy to ensure we stay well positioned. However, with the new developments brought for this Grand Prix, we hope to continue making progress and expect to have a good weekend.