Categories: 2015 SeasonF1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Ferrari battle didn’t hurt Williams development

Williams says it was able to develop its 2014 car in order to beat Ferrari in the constructors’ championship without compromising work on the new FW37.

Having failed to maximise the potential of its car in the early stages of last season, Williams went in to the final race in Abu Dhabi – which was worth double points – still in danger of losing third place to Ferrari. Determined to hold on to the position, chief technical officer Pat Symonds said it was a sign of the size of the team that it was able to continue to try and improve the FW36 without hurting its 2015 plans.

“The desire to beat Ferrari to third place in the Constructors’ in 2014 meant we pushed our development through to late autumn,” Symonds said. “But the size of the team is now at a point where it was able to sustain this development whilst still working on the FW37.”

However, Symonds is aware the lack of dramatic changes in regulations is likely to see the rest of the field come closer together, which will make it hard for Williams to defend its position.

“The more rule stability there is, the closer the field gets. I hope as a team we are more capable of maintaining the forward momentum to catch Mercedes, than the teams behind us are of catching us. It’s not just about stable regulations but also about the team and every individual that works here moving forward and improving.”

Click here to see the full gallery of the first Williams FW37 images

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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.