From 18th to 8th the Williams revival continues

(Williams Martini Racing)

 

Claire Williams assertion that the Williams Martini Racing Team should aim for points in every race proved to be correct in Sepang as both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas brought their cars home in the points scoring the teams first double points finish of the season. For Bottas, it was particularly impressive as he carved his way through the field from 18th to finish just behind Massa.

 

Massa did a great job in fending off the pressure from Bottas who was faster then him in the latter stages of the race. The fact that the team were able to get both cars to the finish and in the points is testament to all the hard work that Claire and her team have done behind the scene's at the Grove based team over the Winter.

 

Williams are currently in fourth place in the Constructors championship with 20 points just ten behind Ferrari.

 

The team have a brand new engine supplier in Mercedes and of course they have more financial resources thanks to their new title sponsorship deal with Martini. They also have a new sponsorship deal with the Petrobas oil firm.

 

It is fantastic to see that the team are doing so well and we are only two race's into the new season. The team could be on for a number of podium's maybe even a win this season. That win could even as soon as next weekend's Bahrain GrandPrix at the Sakhir circuit. During the final day of winter testing in Bahrain Felipe Massa set the fastest time of the entire winter test at the Bahrain International Circuit.

 

It would certainly appear that the FW36 is well extremely well suited to the characteristics of the circuit. Their car has also shown fantastic reliability and Felipe Massa was just extremely unlucky to have been forced to retire from the opening race of the season through no fault of his own.

 

The Ferrari team are the only non Mercedes powered outfit in the top five in the Constructors championship in third place between McLaren and Williams.

 

Sir Frank, who still works a full week at the of Williams factory has certainly made the right choice in promoting Claire to the role of deputy team principal. Although we are only two race's in the Williams team have certainly been the most improved team compared to where they were at this point last year.

 

Although there is still an awful lot of work to do the team can be extremely proud of how they have performed in the first two Grand Prix of the season.

 

©Ben Johnston 2014