Alonso places Massa and Williams among the favorites
If there is a team that had good instincts last year, it is indeed Williams. Swapping their Renault engine for a Mercedes block is surely the best decision the men from Grove have made in recent years. As a result, the FW36 is competitive at the start of the season, to the point that Massa and Bottas are being pointed out as potential title challengers, as Fernando Alonso has noted.
The last test days in Bahrain highlighted the speed of the Williams team cars, which propelled Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas to the top of the timesheets one after another. A welcome resurgence for the British team, which has been chasing its glorious past as multiple world champion for years.
But even if the times clocked during these trials are to be taken with a grain of salt, the performances by Williams have nonetheless received favorable feedback from its competitors, notably from Fernando Alonso, who doesn’t hesitate to rank Felipe Massa among the contenders for victory this year: « I have spoken several times with Felipe since the beginning of the year. He is very happy. Williams has a great history in Formula, it’s not just any team. They had a very strong offseason. It’s very positive because now they can fight. Felipe will be a great rival for this new year. »
For his part, the 2008 vice world champion is very satisfied with these test days and remains very optimistic for the first Grand Prix in Australia as well as for the rest of the season: « I am very happy with the car and feel that we have a good balance. We have worked a lot on the settings and it’s very important to arrive in Australia well prepared. Of course, you are always happy when you see your name appear at the top of the leaderboard, in first place. But beyond performance, our mileage has been very good for the car’s reliability and that’s what we need for Australia. »
But despite this enthusiasm, Massa remains cautious and waits to see the behavior of his car during the first races before making a decision: « We can never be 100% sure before the first race. But I have the feeling that we have done what is necessary during these test days not only to have a car that finishes the race, but also one that has an interesting level of performance. »
Same story from his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who is also confident: “I think with all these testing days, we are prepared for Melbourne as we planned to be.”
