Austria favours our power unit – Symonds
Williams F1 Team's senior technical figure Pat Symonds is looking forward to this weekend’s race in Austria. The Briton is hopeful that the track which favoured the Grove-based squad’s cars in recent years will be a strong track again.
Austria made its reappearance on the F1 calendar in 2014 after a decade-long absence. The track in Spielberg is a fast-speed circuit with long straights, long, never-ending corners and a 90-degree turn. The track in picturesque environment has favoured the Mercedes-powered cars for their dominant power units since its return.
Williams scored its last podium with Felipe Massa in Spielberg two years ago and showed promising pace also in last year’s race.
“We are in the middle of a phase of high-speed circuits of which Austria is typical, and as such favours the characteristics of the FW38 and the Mercedes power unit,” said Symonds.
“The circuit itself has brought us success in the past, and we have every reason to believe that it will do so again.”
Weather prediction for the weekend is unsettled with high chance of rain for the opening days.
“However, for this third visit here with the hybrid cars we will see a couple of significant differences. The first is the weather, which is predicted to be unsettled throughout Friday and Saturday, with current forecasts showing Sunday as the only potentially dry day.”
Pirelli brings the three softest compounds of its range which combined with the resurfaced asphalt promises some challenges for the engineers.
“Perhaps more significantly is the fact that the circuit has been completely resurfaced. In the recent European F3 race, teams reported that it was more severe on tyres, which makes the prospect of a dry race following damp practice sessions even more challenging.”
“That being said, we would expect to see a two-stop race in Austria and the selected tyre choices seem to reflect that.”
Symonds is confident that his team can be strong and challenge Red Bull in the chase for third place in the Constructor’s Championship.
“Whatever conditions are thrown at us I have every confidence that the team will come through to gather a strong haul of points.
