The Williams F1 team had a tough day in Monaco as the weather meant they could not complete the planned programme they had for testing the new parts on the car. The team will be hoping for a better third free practice session on Saturday morning ahead of the afternoons all-important qualifying session.
“There are some new parts we are running this weekend and we gathered lots of data in FP1,” said Rob Smedley, the Head of Performance Engineering at Williams. “The rain affected our running this afternoon, so we couldn’t complete our full programme, however we managed to use the option tyre at the end of the second session which was constructive. There is a lot to do to be ready for Saturday and Sunday, but we have an additional day in between which is positive to work through the data that we could attain despite the limited running.”
Valtteri Bottas was the best placed Williams driver in both sessions, taking seventh in FP1 and fifth in FP2, and the Finnish driver believes he could have a strong weekend around the principality with the new cars particularly fun to drive.
“It’s great to be here in Monaco and good fun with the current cars,” said Bottas. “There are still some improvements we can make to be quicker and the rain didn’t help in the afternoon, but we do have some good data to work from. Saturday will be vital in the morning for set-up and of course qualifying around Monaco is key to having a good weekend. Overall I am feeling positive and I’m looking forward to getting back in the car.”
Team-mate Felipe Massa was sixteenth in both sessions, and the Brazilian was disappointed to have been affected by some car issues in the morning and by the weather in the afternoon, but knows the car is quick by the times set by Bottas.
“Today was a tough day,” said a frustrated Massa. “I had some issues this morning with the power unit sensor so that limited my running, or at least the amount I could push. This afternoon it was wet and so I only went out at the end of the session and then suffered with traffic. The car is quick and Valtteri has shown that, so qualifying on Saturday will be very important.”
