Williams F1 found today’s Turkish Grand Prix a struggle despite qualifying well in P11 and P14. Technical Director Sam Michael has admitted that the cars suffered from some issues with their KERS during the race and this, coupled with tyre degradation, meant they were unable to keep up with the pace during the latter part of the Grand Prix.
“We brought both cars to the finish again, but we just weren’t fast enough today,” Michael explained. “In the first stint of the race we showed some decent pace against a number of cars that finished in the points. However from the second stint onwards we couldn’t match the laptimes of those same cars.
“Small changes in the car balance can have a large effect on tyre degradation and wear. There were also some issues with cooling the KERS during the race. Our focus is now on the upgrades that we have for the Barcelona Grand Prix that will give the car a boost in performance.”
Rubens Barrichello commented, “We struggled quite a bit with straight line speed today and at various points during the race I couldn’t use KERS which made it difficult to defend and I also struggled with it locking up under braking when I was charging.
“We had a better qualifying session but we need to make some changes to the car to ensure the rear tyres can get to the end of the race in good shape. So it is up to us to improve our pace.”
Pastor Maldanado believes that his pace towards the end of the race was good however the penalty he incurred for speeding in the pit-lane did little to help his race.
“It was difficult from the beginning of the race,” Maldonado said. “It was difficult to maintain a consistent pace in the first two stints because I had a lot of oversteer.
“We had a much better pace towards the end of the race when on primes but I made a mistake by speeding in the pit-lane which cost me a drive-through penalty.”
