Lowe has high hopes for successful Sochi

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Williams F1's chief technical officer Paddy Lowe believes this weekend's Russian Grand Prix could prove a happy hunting ground for the team.

Lowe said the team's success last time out hinted at a similar or even better result in Sochi. Felipe Massa finished in the top six two weeks ago.

"We are reasonably encouraged by the performance of the car in Bahrain, so we are optimistic for a strong race," he said this week.

"It is a circuit that requires good all round performance," he explained. "It has a wide range of different speed corners and a long straight, requiring power and efficiency.

"The long straight also provides one of the longest drags from the race start to the first turn," he added. "[That] gives some interesting opportunities for slipstreaming after the start itself."

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"This is just the fourth time we have headed to the Sochi Autodrom since the inaugural race here in 2014," Lowe continued. "It is still a relatively new circuit with new tarmac.

"The surface is very smooth indeed. Probably the smoothest we see all season, which does present some challenges.

"It can be difficult to warm up the tyres during qualifying and degradation is extremely low." Lowe recalled how Nico Rosberg pitted on the first lap in 2014 and was able to finish the race on the same set of tyres.

Lowe added that he was happy to see Formula 1 taking root in Russia.

"The Formula 1 fan base in Russia is growing in this relatively new territory for the sport," he said. "We look forward to putting on an exciting show for everybody this weekend.

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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.