Bottas to run Williams' new floor in FP3
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/botta ... p3-801327/
By: Jonathan Noble, Formula 1 Editor
13 minutes ago
Valtteri Bottas is to run Williams' new floor during final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, as the outfit hopes to bounce back from recent disappointments.
Having not done as well as it had hoped to on the high-speed Austria, Baku and Silverstone tracks, Williams has been working hard on trying to get answers to unlock the potential it believes its current car has.
Part of that work is on aerodynamic improvement, which is why a new floor will be given its debut by Bottas on the Saturday at the Hungaroring. If it proves a step forward it will be kept for the race.
Bottas' work in the morning will also be twinned with evaluating two of the new front wings that Williams trialled on Friday to ensure that a good balance can be found.
Massa will also test two of the wings, but will be without the new floor as Williams only has one available. The Brazilian should get to use it from next week's race in Germany.
Williams technical chief Pat Symonds said he was hopeful that the team was getting some answers for its current form – which is why it was testing new components in such details.
"I think we're getting on top of it," he said. "It does seem that Canada was a long while ago – we were on the podium there – but it was only five weeks ago. But three races since then, Baku, Austria, Silverstone, and I feel in all three of those we haven't performed in the way I expected to. So we are looking into it.
"We are looking at various things that we have introduced. We're making sure that we understand them; that's a process that's been going on this weekend. But it's quite an intense period, you know.
"Over a period of just five weeks we're actually doing four races and one test – five events in five weeks. It's hard to catch your breath when it's going at that sort of pace. But I'm pretty confident we're getting on top of things."