Unsatisfactory result for Williams at Shanghai
A rain-affected Chinese Grand Prix delivered an unsatisfactory result for the AT&T Williams team at the Shanghai International Circuit this afternoon. Light drizzle at the start of the race quickly turned into continuous rain, which ultimately compromised the team’s strategy and led to a series of pitstops for both drivers to counter the conditions.
At the conclusion of the 56 lap race, neither driver had made it into the points, with Rubens Barrichello finishing in 12th and Nico Hulkenberg in P15.
Rubens Barrichello: "The race didn’t go as planned. I was called into the pits for the intermediate tyres early on, it was a hard call and the race developed from there. I think we made good calls after that but by that time it was too late to recover."
Nico Hulkenberg: "It was a tough race and obviously not very satisfying for the team. Looking at the positives, it was good experience for me to complete the full race distance and experience all of the different conditions that we faced today. In particular, it was helpful to see how the car and tyres handled and we now have some good data for any races which might be similar in the future. Results-wise, though, this is nowhere near close enough to where we want to be."
Sam Michael, Technical Director: "It was disappointing not to score points today with either car. Some of the calls on our pitstops were wrong, some were right, but overall we weren't fast enough and didn't make the right decisions. Rubens made a good start so we have improved in that area since Malaysia. We’re now looking ahead to Barcelona to take a step forward with our performance."
