In an interview with the media yesterday, Williams driver Valtteri Bottas believes that beating Ferrari should be their priority even if his team mate Felipe Massa may have his sights set on beating Red Bull Racing.
As Formula 1 enters the final stint, a run of six flyaway grands prix, Williams are third in the Championship on 177 points. This point puts the Williams team 95 behind Red Bull Racing and 15 points ahead of Ferrari.
But while Massa is dreaming of catching Red Bull in the standings, Bottas has stated that he feels staying ahead of Ferrari should be the target for the team. In his interview with the media yesterday, when asked if Williams were looking to haul in Red Bull, Bottas said the following:-
‘That could be more difficult. We know they have some tracks to come where they are going to be really, really strong. For us the priority is to try to beat Ferrari, but you never know, anything can happen. All we are going to do is focus on getting the maximum points for the team. If it’s enough to catch Red Bull then it is.’
As Bottas states, I feel that it will be a difficult for Williams to close the gap down to Red Bull and beat them in the Constructors for second place. Bottas is realistic that even though anything can happen in the next six races, he knows that Red Bull will very strong at the remaining races. All they can do is ensure that they achieve the best result possible on the track and if they are able to beat Red Bull, then it would seem that Bottas would be pleased about that.
Bottas enters the final six races with four podium finishes (including two P2s to his name) which puts him fourth in the Drivers’ Championship. Further on in his interview, Bottas is confident there will be more opportunities to finish inside the top three before this season is over. Bottas added the following:-
‘Singapore, maybe Brazil, they could be difficult ones [tracks], but we reckon there are some good ones to come [too]. We are still aiming to bring some updates later in the season, so Suzuka, Austin and Abu Dhabi, for example, I think we can fight for the podium definitely. We’ll keep pushing.’
From what Bottas has said, I feel in my opinion that Williams will push in every single race remaining, but they should concentrate specifically on the tracks such as Brazil that they feel they have the best chance at scoring really good points at. It is nice to see that Williams are still bringing updates to the races and this will only help them extract more pace and performance from the car but will also help them as they look towards working on next year’s car.
But overall, I would have to agree with Bottas and I feel that the gap to Red Bull is just too much for the Williams team to catch them. The only way I see Williams catching Red Bull up is if they had a succession of bad weekends and with the remaining races left, anything can happen but I don’t think that will happen.
For me personally, I feel that Williams need to ensure that they push hard and try and achieve the best results that they can in the final six races of the season in order to maintain their current position in the Constructors Championship ahead of Ferrari. If anyone would have offered Williams a year ago third in the Constructors Championship, they would have bit your arm off.
I do feel that Williams will take third place in the Constructors Championship and I feel that is an astonishing result for a team that was ninth in the championship last year and it is a result that is well deserved and will be well received by many pundits and fans alike. And so it should be too.
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