Former Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa has said that Williams Martini Racing have made several changes to their 2018 car that look “quite interesting”.
The Brazilian, who spent four years at Williams between 2014 and 2017, also noted that the new car looks more aggressive in comparison to its predecessor.
After seeing a decline in performance over the past two seasons, Massa believes that the changes will breathe new life into the team as they look to keep their top five placing in the Constructors’ Championship.
“I saw the new car in the wind tunnel and I saw so many changes that look quite interesting,” Massa revealed to Motorsport.com. “Everybody is working. Maybe you get to the first race and everybody has so many different changes and everything in the car.”
“The car looks a lot more aggressive. It looks a lot different so I believe maybe they can improve.”
Following Massa’s now permanent retirement, Williams head into 2018 with a revised and inexperienced driver line-up. Teenage Canadian Lance Stroll is joined for his second season by Russian debutant Sergey Sirotkin, who was chosen over the returning Robert Kubica.
However, despite holding confidence in the new car, Massa understands that with the Renault Sport Formula One Team gathering pace and the McLaren F1 Team parting ways with engine suppliers Honda, the Grove team’s work will be cut out.
“You will have Renault that will improve,” Massa mused. “You will also have McLaren so we need to see how much it can be this improvement.
“I need to see also what the drivers can do, but I believe maybe the team can have a better car compared to what we had until now.”
Williams are expected to unveil the FW41 around the time of the first Barcelona pre-season test, with a date yet to be confirmed.
