According to Pat Symonds, Head of Team Williams, Formula 1 world champions, Mercedes, have 'chinks in their armour' that the British team will be looking to capitalise on in the upcoming race season.
When speaking with Reuters, the Williams top-man said that he was 'reasonably optimistic' about the upcoming season, judging by the latest wind tunnel data that he received. He said," I'm not an optimistic person but I know the improvements we've made to the car are greater than we made last year, I have to say I am quite pleased with the improvements on paper that we've made with the car."
Considering these statements, it appears that Team Williams is brimming with confidence and will be raring to test their 2016 car on the track once pre-season testing commences in Spain next month. The team had been through a rough spell but has managed to climb above its poor performances over the last couple of years. Williams, which was once a dominant force in the sport, has achieved 3rd place in the constructors' championship for 2 consecutive years now and will be hoping to mount a charge for top spot this race calendar given that Ferrari itself has not been able to compete for the top spot for some time now. Ferrari is still the most decorated Formula 1 team in the history of the sport and boasts of 16 titles despite not having won one sine 2008. Williams and McLaren come in at 2nd and 3rd with 9 and 8 titles respectively.
The Williams team has seen great improvements over the last 2 years and even managed to finish ahead of 4 times consecutive world champions, Red Bull, proving that the team is in fact headed in a positive direction. Due to the constantly evolving regulations and technical nature of the sport, many fans and experts have argued that a well-funded 'works' team holds a big advantage over any 'customer' team although this fact has been disproved on a few occasions including the momentous constructors championship win achieved by Mercedes -powered Brawn in 2009. The win was all the more impressive as it came at a time when Team McLaren was the German engine-makers golden egg.
"I still want to believe that we can (beat Mercedes). If they are running their engines a bit harder than us, which of course they are perfectly entitled to do, and that's worth a 10th of a second then we've got to make a car that is a 10th of a second quicker than theirs to get on equal terms," elaborated Symonds when reflecting on the aforementioned sentiment. Drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa will continue to spearhead the charge.
