Pat Symonds is happy to hear criticism that Williams Martini Racing are having an apparent disappointing and under-performing season, but feels the team are not in such a bad position when you look deeper into the situation.
Williams were the second fastest team during the end of the 2014 season, with both Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa taking podium finishes, but in 2015 both drivers have only visited the podium once, Bottas in Canada and Massa in Austria, but Symonds believes they are in a good position with the comparative budget to that of their main rivals.
“I think it’s quite interesting there was a bit of perception at the start of the season that Williams wasn’t having as a good a year as people had expected,” revealed Symonds to Autosport. “I think that shows where the expectations now were.
“I was quite proud of that because there we were, third in championship again and in a much more solid place than we were last year and people were saying, ‘oh you can do better’.
“You think, ‘well, actually, with what we’ve got in terms of budget and headcount, we’re not doing too badly’.”
Symonds believes it was more important to consolidate Williams’ position towards the front of the grid than fade into the midfield, with the Technical chief feeling the team have achieved that aim.
“This season is an important year for Williams, because 2014 had been a year when we had to make a comeback,” added Symonds.
“We managed to do it and I think third place was just reward for a lot of hard work and lot of brave decisions made within the management group.
“If it had been a one-off year and we faded to midfield again, it wouldn’t have achieved what we wanted to achieve.
“So in 2015 it was important to consolidate our position, both competitively on race track and as a business, and I think thus far we have managed to do that.”
