Sunday Review: Williams: Still no car at the finish
The Williams drivers were confident in the potential of their FW33, but the car does not seem to be up to their expectations.
The two Williams drivers had already not finished the race in Australia due to mechanical problems. Despite a poor qualifying session that saw Pastor Maldonado eliminated in Q1, the team had announced that they were aiming for points. But before that, their car would need to finish a Grand Prix.
Rubens Barrichello Abandons
« A hydraulic issue forced us to abandon the race today. The team is still trying to pinpoint exactly what caused the problem. I was running at the back anyway when we had to retire, due to a premature tire change after a collision. It’s not really the start of the season I was hoping for, and we need to improve. At the moment, we don’t have a reliable car, and we need to make up for lost time, but the team is working very hard to fix the issues and improve our performance. I believe they’ll be here soon. »
Pastor Maldonado Abandon
« We had problems with the car starting from the third lap. I tried to stay on track, but we had to bring the car back to the garage. I am now looking forward to China, where I will do everything to finish the race and get a better result. »
Sam Michael
As a team, we hope, and must improve on all points. Rubens had a puncture after an impact in the last corner on the first lap. The necessarily cautious lap and the additional stop to replace the tire cost him a lap. We held on afterward, before suffering a hydraulic leak probably due to the accident. This ended Rubens’ race. Engine problems, whose cause we are investigating, also put Pastor out. We will now have to quickly address these reliability issues before heading to the Shanghai race with a slightly more competitive FW33.
