Williams Report – A weekend without real flair…

Just a week ago, the Williams team was celebrating with the first podium of its driver, Nico Rosberg.

Seven days later, the situation has changed significantly. In difficulty throughout the weekend, the British team finishes this Grand Prix far behind the leaders.

Rosberg and Nakajima finished 14th and 17th respectively but had the merit of completing the race. A collision for the German and a puncture for the Japanese nearly turned this weekend into a severe underperformance. All eyes are on Bahrain tonight to regain a level of competitiveness equal to that shown in Australia.

Nico Rosberg – 14th:

« I knew that starting from the 16th place, I had to take all the risks to make the race interesting and actually, it went quite well. I was carrying a lot of fuel. But then I got a little too close to Timo Glock. »

I assume he didn’t see me, it’s very unfortunate. The car was better today in the race, but despite everything I tried to do, it wasn’t our weekend. For now, I look forward to returning to the Bahrain circuit where things should be better.

Kazuki Nakajima – 17th:

« Starting from dead last on the grid, we opted for an aggressive race strategy. The situation was tough from the start. On the second stint, I had a flat tire and had to pit very early, which was not ideal. I had to run two fairly short first stints, and the last one was longer. »

Sam Michael – Technical Director:

This race was a weekend to move on from. After a poor qualification, we tried two different strategies on the cars, Nico with one stop and Kazuki with two stops. The plan didn’t work as Nico lost his wing on the first lap and Kazuki had a puncture. We then had an issue with the fuel system on Nico’s car, and we had to bring him into the pits earlier than planned.

Kazuki did a very good first stint with our employed strategy, but this puncture in the second stint changed the order of things and we had to bring him in earlier than expected. We need to learn from all these mistakes made over the weekend, and we look forward to Bahrain.