Williams Martini Racing chief technical officer, Paddy Lowe was pleased to see both cars finish the Austrian Grand Prix but apart from that conceded it was another disappointing day for the Grove outfit.
Lance Stroll received a ten second time penalty that moved him behind team-mate Sergey Sirotkin as the Williams pair finished thirteenth and fourteenth at the Red Bull Ring.
Both Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport retired along with Nico Hülkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Brendon Hartley and Stoffel Vandoorne and Lowe believes it is a positive sign that both Stroll and Sirotkin finished.
“It is good to get two cars home as many teams didn’t manage that, but, having said that, overall it was a disappointing day for us.
“The expectations on pace were higher than we saw this afternoon, where, ultimately we weren’t quick enough to get points on a day when a lot of points were on the table.”
Tyre wear was a major issue in Austria and that hurt Williams as they made an extra stop after falling away from the points paying positions.
“We had a good one-stop strategy that would have worked until our pace fell apart.
“We then had enough of a gap for a free stop towards the end, and so pitted both cars again to protect against any tyre wear issues in the final laps.
