Paddy Lowe departed the all conquering Mercedes team at the end of last year, to rejoin Williams who currently are at the sharp end of the midfield and although his influence is yet to reap rewards, veteran driver Felipe Massa is upbeat about the team’s new technical chief.
Speasking to UOL Massa said, “What Williams needed was a shift in areas where things were not working in the right way. First, it took a boss with a lot of experience in big teams, like Paddy, who was very responsible for the three Mercedes titles, to get things right.”
“Of course he does not do the work alone, but I believe his mentality was what we needed. Now the ideas are very different. Of course we have to make it happen, but the way it is now is much better than it was.”
“One of the first things I said to him was to identify three areas that had to change because it was amazing how, in the last two years, little has changed within the team. If you look at the car that started the 2015 season and the one we used in 2016, they were practically the same. This happened because of several problems within the team.”
“With this year’s car, there are still things that do not work in the best way and I believe that if we can get this right, we can find half a second in that and that is without new parts.”
“In addition to that, we had new parts in the Bahrain race and I think they worked very well. But also have new parts for Barcelona and for Monaco and that’s the way forward,” added Massa.
Heading to the Spanish Grand Prix, after four rounds, Williams lie fifth in tha championship and will be looking to at least catapult Force India ahead of them and start challenging at the front.
Big Question: Can Williams be a major force in Formula 1 again?