(Williams Martini Racing)
The Williams Martini Racing team are aiming to score their first podium since the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix at this weekend's race in Bahrain. The Grove based team have had a great start to the 2014 season and are currently in fourth place in the Constructors championship with 20 point's.
Team engineer Rod Nelson said:
'Absolutely, finishing on the podium that's, definitely the target' when asked if the team are confident of challenging for a podium at Sunday's race at the Sakhir circuit. Valtteri Bottas finished the opening race of the season in Australia in 5th place securing 10 points.
The team came away with a double point's finish in Malaysia at the weekend despite there being some controversy after Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were caught up in a inter team battle which saw Bottas closing on Massa in the latter stages of the race.
Massa was told that Bottas was faster than him however the Brazilian did not let his team mate past and went on to finish the race in 7th place while Bottas finished in 8th place.
Following the race deputy team principal Claire Williams told Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz that:
'At the end of the day, Felipe finished ahead of Valtteri. They were both told to cool it. Speaking about the team battle chief engineer Rod Nelson stated:
'(Massa) didn't do we would have preferred him to do'
The team will discuss the issue amongst the drivers in house and as they look ahead to Bahrain Nelson said:
'You've got to look at whether you want to be quick in quali on a certain type of track or do you want to be quick in the race at another type of track. You have to look at the whole year and the circuits we go to and the level of drag we are prepared to take'
The Williams FW36 ended the Winter test in Bahrain as the fastest car however there are a number of different factors that should be taken into consideration. The main one being that this year the Bahrain Grand Prix will, for the first time be a night race to celebrate ten years of the race. This means that the temperatures will be slightly cooler then when they race in Bahrain during the day so that is likely to play a key role in the performance of the car.
The team will also be wanting to ensure that they have a better outcome in qualifying after Massa qualified for the Malaysian Grand Prix in 13th place while Bottas qualified in 15th but started 18th following a three place grid penalty. The Mercedes power unit has certainly show that it has the pace to be up front so the Williams team should be in a position to get both cars in the top ten in qualifying for Bahrain as Winter testing showed that the FW36 appears to suit the characteristics of the Sakhir circuit.
©Ben Johnston 2014
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