Formula One news
Q&A with Sam Michael
09 June 2009The Williams team was pleased to have returned to the top eight at last weekend's Turkish Grand Prix. Making great use of a strong start at Istanbul Park, Nico Rosberg added four points to the Grove-based team's 2009 tally with fifth place. Technical director Sam Michael reflects on a weekend which saw Williams move into the top six of the constructors' championship.
Are you pleased with the performance of the FW31 around Istanbul Park?
Yes I am. The FW31's development pace is going well and we are closing the gap to the teams in front. We now need to continue making that kind of progress throughout the rest of this season.
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| Rosberg's first points of the season came with sixth place in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix |
Did the new front wing close the gap to your nearest rivals?
We started setup work with the new front wing in practice on Friday and it worked as expected straight away. It will now be the baseline from which we'll keep making developments.
How did you find the two types of tyre available this weekend?
We experienced some graining on the option during the practice sessions which caused us a small amount of concern, but the issue became less problematic by the time we used it during Sunday's race.
Both drivers made good starts in the race. How much work have you done in this area?
We were really happy with the drivers' starts as both Nico and Kazuki gained a couple of positions off the line and, by the end of the first lap, Nico had progressed four places up the order. The Toyota engine has always had a really strong bottom end and that is a crucial element to our starts.
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| After a strong start to 2008, Nakajima is yet to score points in 2009 |
Thoughts on your drivers' race performances?
Nico's first lap was fairly impressive. Starting in ninth and ending the first lap in fifth position was more than we'd hoped for. He made some good overtaking manoeuvres on Alonso, Räikkönen and Massa, all in that first lap, but then to hold position and pull out a gap was great. His first stint was strong, as was his second, so it was frustrating to lose track position to Trulli in the last pitstop.
Overall though, Nico did a good job for the team this weekend. Kazuki also drove really well. He had a good first lap but he was on a different strategy to Nico in that he was on a longer first stint. Kazuki kept pushing in the final stint of the race and his pace was really good, it was just a shame about the pitstop as he could have collected a couple of points for seventh.
Nico was only 3.5s behind Trulli at the flag. Was fourth place ever on the cards?
It was, but we couldn't pull out a big enough gap from Trulli in the last few laps before his final stop. Because Trulli was fuelled longer than us and able to hold his position, he was a bit quicker.
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| Rosberg in close attendance with Felipe Massa's Ferrari at Silverstone last year |
What went wrong at Kazuki's second pitstop and how much time did he lose?
We had a problem with the wheel nut retention device and I'm really sorry that we let him down. In order for us to expect a lot from our drivers we, in turn, can't let them down like that.
Silverstone's next. How do you expect the FW31 to perform?
The FW31 has been strong on tracks with high speed corners all year.
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