(Williams Martini Racing)
Williams Martini Racing head into the 2014 Formula One season off the back of an extremely strong Winter testing programme and as a result their new driver Felipe Massa believes that the team will be in a position to challenge at the front of the field at next weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Albert Park.
This season sees Williams move to Mercedes power after three season's with Renault and the new Mercedes V6 power unit have proven to be the strongest so far during winter testing. Williams had no reliability issues apart from Valtteri Bottas coming to a halt on the final day of testing last week due to his engine coming to end of its mileage life.
Felipe Massa said that from the moment he stepped into the car for the first time in Jerez in January he had a great feeling. He also said that he is excited that things can go well for the team however like most of the field he has refused to predict where the team will finish in Australia.
He has stated that he hopes that the car is competitive and reliable in Albert Park. When asked however who he thought were the front runners so far Massa said that Mercedes look to be in front.
Despite setting the fastest time of all during the final test in Bahrain Massa believes that Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus will be challenging at the front although with Red Bull he does not know what to expect from them as they spent a lot of time in the garage during testing.
If pre-season testing was anything to go by then the FW36 will hit the ground running in Australia. There is exactly one week until track action gets underway at Albert Park.
©Ben Johnston 2014
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