Williams confident car had podium potential

Williams head of performance engineering Rob Smedley thinks a second consecutive podium finish was on the cards at Singapore, had Valtteri Bottas lined up higher than P7 on the grid.

The British team expected to struggle at twisty and narrow Marina Bay Circuit, but the Finn still managed to salvage a strong fifth-place finish in an action-packed race. Asked whether Bottas’ result was the best Williams could have achieved, Smedley replied:

“From where we started yes. But what I will say is that the car was probably good enough for a podium, had we been able to qualify better.”

“I think we made great in-roads over the weekend, in terms of dragging pace out of it around a circuit like this. Qualifying was really tough, but the pace has proved to be slightly more reasonable during the race.”

Bottas’ sole alert came when the 26-year-old was informed of a potential gearbox issue in the closing stages of the grand prix. At that time, team-mate Felipe Massa had already retired with a similar technical gremlin.

“We were just being a little bit cautious,” added Smedley. “We did not fully understand, but we’d had a good insight into what the problem was on Felipe’s car.

“Therefore, we were jut giving some forewarning that it was possible [Valtteri] could get some glitches on the gearbox, some shifting to different gears that he was not expecting.”

REPORT: Vettel takes third win as Hamilton retires in Singapore

AS IT HAPPENED: 2015 Singapore Grand Prix

Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore

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