(Williams Martini Racing Team)
What a difference a year makes! Rewind the clock back to end of the 2013 Formula One season. The Williams Renault Formula One team had just had their worst season in years finishing the championship in 9th place on 5 points finishing the season just ahead of the Marussia and Caterham F1 Team's having scored points in just Grand Prix with Pastor Maldonado finishing the Hungarian Grand Prix in 10th place while in his first season as a race driver for the team Valtteri Bottas finished the United States Grand Prix in 8th place.
Fast forward to Sunday 23rd November 2014 and the new look Williams Racing Team finished the season off in style with their first double podium finish since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix as Felipe Massa scored his second podium in succession finishing the race in second place behind Lewis Hamilton while Valtteri Bottas finished in third place and in doing so finished the 2014 season in fourth place in the championship.
The Finn scored six podium finishes collecting 186 points. Speaking following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Bottas commented saying:
'We were very competitive today. I got a bad start and the race was compromised after I was stuck behind a few cars, so to walk away with a podium is incredible. It was a good race; I could really push and fight. The team has grown and developed throughout the season, from our first race in Melbourne to our best result here. It’s a great start to build on for next year and to continue the team’s great history. '
Felipe Massa joined the Williams Martini Racing Team after his Ferrari contract was not renewed and did a fantastic job to claim three podium finishes in Italy, Brazil and Abu Dhabi aswell as claiming the team's first pole position since the 2003 German Grand Prix when he lead a Williams front row lock out at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Massa finished the season in seventh place in the championship on 134 points just behind former Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso and speaking following the race in Abu Dhabi the Brazilian stated:
'It was a close race, I didn’t think the victory was there, but it was so close at the end. It was good to be racing and pushing the Mercedes. I hope this is a strong building block to go on for next year. The team progressed so much throughout the year, which is why we were able to get podiums in the second half of the season; we will continue this forward movement into next year.'
The Williams team have undergone an incredible transformation since the 2013 season. Ahead of the 2014 season it was announced that Felipe Massa would be joining the team from Ferrari while it was also announced that the team had signed a long term power unit supply contract with Mercedes Benz.
On the eve of the opening race in Melbourne Australia, it was also announced that the Grove based outfit had signed a new multi-year title sponsorship agreement with Martini which resulted in the outfit being renamed Williams Martini Racing Team. Prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix it was announced that Felipe Massa's former race engineer Rob Smedley had joined the team as Head of Performance Engineering.
Speaking following the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Smedley stated:
'It was a fitting end to the season. The team has come on over the year in an incredible fashion. To get our best result of the season in the final race is a fitting tribute to all the work we have done. It’s been over ten years since Williams was last P3 in the Constructors’ and that is testament to the effort that the guys have made, many of whom have been here through the tough times are now reaping the benefit of their commitment.'
In an interview before the start of the season opening Australian Grand Prix back in March, deputy team principal Claire Williams stated that the teams goal had to be to try and score points in every race of the season and that if they could achieve that it would be a great result for the team.
Not only did the team achieve that objective but they score a total of nine podium finishes that cemented their position in third place in the Constructors championship ending the season on 320 points, 104 points ahead of Ferrari who finished in fourth place. Speaking following the race Claire Williams commented by saying:
'I am exceptionally proud of the team today, to go from P9 last year to P3 in 2014 is amazing. The work to turn the team around has been hard, but I am so happy to see the smiles back on the faces of the people that work here. This is just the first step in a great future for Williams. We must congratulate Mercedes on winning both Championships and thank Mercedes HPP for all their effort throughout the season.'
The team's test and reserve driver Susie Wolff also played a key role in their success this season providing the drivers with vital feedback from the simulator work she did ad indeed the work she carried out during her two Free Practice outings in Silverstone at the British Grand Prix despite it being short lived where Valtteri Bottas finished that race in second place behind Lewis Hamilton.
Wolff also drove in Free Practice one in Germany where once again Bottas finished on the podium in second place.
The team will be hoping to carry their success into the 2015 Formula One season which is just 112 days away!!
© Ben Johnston 2014
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