Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Williams eyeing hat-trick of podiums

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Williams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley has set the team a target of securing a hat-trick of podiums at the British Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas finished third in Canada before Felipe Massa repeated the result by holding off Sebastian Vettel in the Austrian Grand Prix. With Williams now heading to a circuit where Bottas finished second in 2014, Smedley says the target is to continue the run of top three finishes.

"Silverstone should be another circuit, like the last two, that suits the characteristics of our car," Smedley said. "We have a car that is very strong in a straight line, aided by the Mercedes power unit and the low drag configuration that we tend to run.

"In addition the car is strong through the high-speed corners. Last year it was an exceptional circuit for us with Valtteri coming from near the back of the grid to second position. Our target is to replicate the result from last year and get our third consecutive podium of the season."

Massa says he can notice a spring in the step of team members after the recent pair of good results.

"Heading to the team’s home race, we are looking to make it a hat-trick of podiums, and spirits within the team are high right now," Massa said. "I hope we can give the home fans another positive result and we can continue the positive momentum from the last few weeks."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.