(Thesun.co.uk)
Williams Martini Racing co-founder Patrick Head has admitted that comments that the teams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley made about Force India following Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa's collision on the final lap of the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend were 'A bit out of order'.
Smedley said after the race that he believes Force India should have retired Perez from the race after the Mexican reported problems with his brake's during the race. However Head has been quick to try and defuse the argument between the team's by saying that he believes that Smedley's comments came out of frustration. Speaking to Sky Sports F1's Midweek Report Head stated:
'Any team that starts fourth and fifth on the grid, if you finish with one car seventh you are going to be very disappointed, I saw that Rob Smedley, the operations manager, had criticised Force India, which I think was a bit out of order. But it told me that he was massively disappointed after the race, and I think they would be and should be.'
Head went on to say:
'I hope there will be other chances [to win] going forward, but it [Canada] was certainly a very good opportunity. Williams have really not achieved what the car is capable of this year, and they know that. Here was another event where that happened. It's something I'm sure they will put right, but you want to walk away with a lot of points and those are missing a bit at the moment.'
Smedley said after the race that he believes Force India should have retired Perez from the race after the Mexican reported problems with his brake's during the race. However Head has been quick to try and defuse the argument between the team's by saying that he believes that Smedley's comments came out of frustration. Speaking to Sky Sports F1's Midweek Report Head stated:
'Any team that starts fourth and fifth on the grid, if you finish with one car seventh you are going to be very disappointed, I saw that Rob Smedley, the operations manager, had criticised Force India, which I think was a bit out of order. But it told me that he was massively disappointed after the race, and I think they would be and should be.'
Head went on to say:
'I hope there will be other chances [to win] going forward, but it [Canada] was certainly a very good opportunity. Williams have really not achieved what the car is capable of this year, and they know that. Here was another event where that happened. It's something I'm sure they will put right, but you want to walk away with a lot of points and those are missing a bit at the moment.'
Force India are currently locked in a very tight battle for third place in the championship with Ferrari and are currently just ten point's behind Ferrari in the Constructors championship and had Perez finished the race on the podium which he was close to doing in Canada the team would have leap frogged Ferrari as Nico Hulkenberg had a strong performance and would have finished 8th although as a result of Massa and Perez's retirements The Hulk finished the race in 7th place.
The Williams Martini Racing Team are themselves, involved in a very tight battle for fifth place in the championship with McLaren and have lost ground to the Woking based outfit as a result of Massa's DNF.
Head, who is no longer on the board of the Williams F1 team believes that the Grove outfit have yet to unlock the full potential of their new car.
©Ben Johnston 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment