Webber not able to shine in Australia
Only moments after the start, Massa got sandwiched by Klien and Rosberg. Rosberg and Massa hit and both drivers had to abandon the race. Team mate and Aussi Mark Webber wasn't able to shine in front of his home crowd as he suffered a gearbox problem and had to abandon.
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1 “Obviously this was a disappointing result for the team. Nico’s race was over at the first corner when he was hit from behind. We were looking strong on Mark’s car, as he was running very long and had a lot more fuel on board, but something failed inside the transmission - we won’t knowexactly what until we get the car back and have a look at it. Bridgestone brought a really good tyre to the race, it was a shame we could not make the most of it. The job for us now is obviously to work on our reliability.”
Mark Webber “We’re not quite sure exactly what happened, we think it is something related to the gearbox. It’s a real shame because we had a great strategy and I was very, very heavy - I had plenty more laps to go and although it might have been tough to keep Kimi and Fernando away from my P1 position, I
think we had lots of other people including Jenson and Ralf covered and a podium would have been reasonably straightforward. But saying all of that, you need to get to the chequered flag. The outcome is really disappointing for me, the team, everyone, but we’re all in the boat together – the team and Bridgestone has done a really good job on the car, we have the pace, but now we’ve got to work on our reliability.”
Nico Rosberg “The start of my race into the first corner all went fine but then Massa & Klien got in bit of a tangle and I could see Massa coming sideways in my mirrors on the inside of me. I thought to myself don’t, please don’t, because I had nowhere to go. In the end he just hit me from behind and that was it. My rear wing was off and my radiators were too damaged for me to continue. It’s unfortunate because I was in a good position with a lot of fuel and considering that so many people had gone off or dropped to the back of the field, I was starting to think that today it could have gone my way and I could have scored some good points. I’m going to look forward to Imola now, finally a track that I know well.”
Sean O’Mahony, Principal Engineer, F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth Ltd “Obviously it wasn’t the best day for the team, but we live to fight another day. We were concerned about engine temperatures after the aborted start, but both drivers managed their engine usage sensibly. It was good to see a Cosworth-powered car leading the race and when our luck changes we can hopefully convert the obvious potential of the package into results. So far we have not seen any issues with the engines despite the on-track incidents, but we will need to give them a thorough inspection.”
