Tyre management costs Williams podium finish at US GP
Williams' Felipe Massa finished fourth and Valtteri Bottas fifth in today’s United States Grand Prix. Both men drove clean and consistent races but saw Daniel Ricciardo move up into third, pushing the Williams off the podium. The team though did extend its advantage over Ferrari in the contructors' standings.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: We are slightly disappointed to have lost places to where we started, but at the end of the day Ricciardo was quicker than us and drove a very good race. We need to analyse our strategy as our pitstop choice allowed Red Bull to jump us for the podium, so we will go away and assess what we could have done differently and rectify that for next time. We are focused on consolidating third place in the Constructors’ Championship and we need to be satisfied with the fact that we have extended our position over Ferrari so well done to all of the team for another strong performance.
Felipe Massa, 4th: "I had a very good start to get up to third place and we showed strong pace throughout the race, but unfortunately a slower than normal pitstop allowed Ricciardo to jump me and this could have cost us a podium which was possible. These things happen though and the team have been operating at a very high level with pitstops this season so we need to quickly move on from this one. On the whole we need to see this as a positive weekend as we have scored more points than our rivals in the Constructors’ Championship and we have good momentum for the final two races of the season."
Valtteri Bottas, 5th: "Overall we have managed to secure some good points and increased our lead over Ferrari for third in the Constructors’ Championship, but there are a number of things we can learn from today. I had a bit of clutch slip at the beginning which allowed Ricciardo to jump me in the first corner. The Red Bull’s also had better tyre management and could run at a better pace for longer, so that made it difficult to catch Ricciardo after he jumped me at the pitstops. At this point in the season we’re trying to maximise our points haul and this has been a solid result that puts us in a good position headed into Brazil. "
