Are Williams in Danger of Dropping Back into the Formula 1 Midfield?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: April 24, 2016

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Claire Williams, deputy team principal of the Williams Formula One team, told the official F1 website in November 2014, "From where we are now, 2015 should almost be a dress rehearsal for a championship challenge in 2016." After three races in 2016, it is safe to say that a title run is not going to happen for Williams this year.

Mercedes (who supply Williams with their engines) remain dominant, while Ferrari and Red Bull—with their massive budgets—are in the best position to challenge the Silver Arrows' hegemony.

Williams, who finished a brilliant third in the constructors' championship in both 2014 and 2015, are sitting fourth, closer to Toro Rosso and newcomers Haas than to Ferrari and Red Bull.

Now, after their major improvements the last two years, are Williams in danger of slipping back into the midfield?



True, Williams started relatively slowly the last two seasons, as well (they didn't score a podium before June in either year), but the trend of their race results is not promising. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were closer to the front-runners in the early races of 2014 and 2015 than they have been this season.

In Australia, Massa finished fifth but was nearly a minute behind race-winner Nico Rosberg, despite a mid-race red flag and restart. Massa and Bottas finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in Bahrain, and both were more than a lap behind Rosberg. And in China, Massa was again the top Williams driver, finishing sixth, but one minute, 15 seconds behind the winning Mercedes.

The following chart compares the top Williams driver to the race-winner at the first three grands prix for each of the last three seasons (the gap from the 2015 Chinese Grand Prix is taken from the lap before Max Verstappen's stranded Toro Rosso brought out the safety car and artificially bunched up the field at the finish):



With Ferrari and Renault...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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