The Williams Formula One team’s top management believe the team’s upward curve this season will result in a long-overdue victory.
The Grove-based marque have re-emerged during the past few months as a force to be reckoned with, scoring 77 points in the last four races to emerge as consistent challengers to the dominant Mercedes-GP team, who have won nine of this year’s 11 races.
That included a run of three successive podiums for Valtteri Bottas, as the emerging Finn finished third in Austria and runner-up in the two races that followed in Britain and Germany, while teammate Felipe Massa took pole position in Austria, the team’s first in two years.
With the car appearing to possess a quicker straight-line speed than the Mercedes package, Williams’ first win since the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix might be in the offing, particularly at fast tracks in Belgium on August 23 and Italy on September 7 that follow after the summer break.
“The team has done a great job this year to turn everything around, and we’re building towards [a win],” deputy team principal Claire Williams said.
“We’ve still a lot of work to do. Mercedes are quite far ahead at the moment.
“We closed that gap a little bit in Germany, so it will be exciting to see what we can do moving to [Begium and Italy]. I’d like to think the faster circuits will be to our advantage.”
Rob Smedley, head of vehicle performance at Williams and a key figure in the team’s turnaround, believes a win over the next month in Belgium or Italy is “a possibility”.
“Both of those tracks will suit our car very well, I would have thought, but I’ve said before,” he said. “We don’t fear anywhere, really. The ambition of the team is obviously to win the world championship, and in order to do that, you have to beat everybody.
“We know the world championship is a little bit one-sided this year, but that doesn’t stop us preparing ourselves for the years to come.
“Running at the front and winning races is something this team needs to re-learn how to do.
“You saw once we re-learned how to be slick enough to get podiums, they kept falling out of the jackpot machine at us.”
