Williams to carry momentum forward after Bottas' Montreal podium

Williams' Head of Vehicle Performance Rob Smedley was delighted with his team's strong performance in Montreal, with Valterri Bottas enjoying his first podium finish of the season and Felipe Massa storming through the field to secure sixth place and some valuable points.

"The message I gave to the team this morning was that we have to go into this race believing in ourselves and be on the top of our game, " Smedley commented. " If we did that I believed we could get on the podium with Valtteri and get a lot of points with Felipe, and that's exactly what we've done. The two drivers were absolutely fantastic all race. The team has worked well as a unit and the strategies were spot on. The rewards are there when you get it right and we need to use this as a good boost to keep moving forwards. We now have races ahead of us where we should be aiming for more podiums."

With Formula 1 now heading to Austria and then Silverstone, Smedley believes Williams will carry its momentum forward and bridge the gap with Ferrari at venues which appear particularly well suited to the FW37.

" I think we can race right at the front in the next few races. I'm constantly saying it, and Pat's (Symonds) saying the same thing, we can't be scared of any single circuit, and we shouldn't be. We're constantly upgrading the car and we'll hopefully have a little bit more in Austria, which is going to get us even closer or in front (of Ferrari)."

In the recent past, one of Williams' weak points has typically been on the strategy front when untimely or wrong decisions often deprived the team of some good points and a relevant result. But Rob Smedley praised the team for the great work accomplished to date in the strategy department.

"I wouldn't like to say that strategy is such a difficult call, especially in this era of Formula 1, but the guys are doing such a good job and if I make the final decision, they're making that easy for me to make that final decision, so yes, we're just getting better and better at that."

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