Gillan: “Williams wasted an opportunity”

Williams returns home from the Monaco Grand Prix with mixed feelings: in Grove there is the feeling of having thrown away the possibility of winning very important points in Monaco with a view to the Constructors' Championship and hopes to make up for it in Montreal.

After Pastor Maldonado's victory in Spain, an encore was expected on the streets of the Principality and the pace of the FW34 would have allowed a result in the top five, claims Mark Gillan, chief engineer of track operations for the English team. “The car was quite competitive in Monaco, we could have fought for fourth or fifth position in qualifying and our race pace was similar, so it's disappointing that we didn't come away from this event with a decent haul of points. It's a shame, the Supersofts worked quite well both in terms of pace and durability, the tires were capable of allowing one stop and had probably been the default strategy for most teams. Unfortunately, Pastor's weekend was compromised by a grid penalty following a collision with Sergio Perez in FP3. I think the accident was avoidable and the punishment is therefore understandable." Gillan explained.

Williams is therefore not happy with Maldonado's stunt, which took away points from the British team that were fundamental in the process of rising towards the top teams. At the same time, Bruno Senna has shown signs of improvement, but he still doesn't seem to be up to par with the Venezuelan. “Bruno was very honest and admitted after qualifying that he could have done better and pushed hard throughout the race but in the end he was slowed down by Kimi Raikkonen”, Gillan insisted. “We will continue to work hard with Bruno in the simulator and on track to help him maximize tire performance. The team is now looking to go to Montreal with confidence as we believe we should be strong again, but we need to deliver both qualifying and the race with a convincing performance. Montreal is usually a lively race, with multiple stops, heavy brake wear and the possibility of a safety car, so we will try to deal with these unforeseen events.", concluded the Williams coach.

Lorena Bianchi