Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Symonds: Massa getting quicker

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Pat Symonds says Felipe Massa is “finding more and more speed” as he gets more comfortable at Williams.

Massa joined Williams at the start of the 2014 season from Ferrari having spent eight seasons at Maranello. While Massa himself said last season he was enjoying his driving more following the move, chief technical officer Symonds says he can see the improvements as Massa settles in ahead of a second year.

“Felipe is become more and more comfortable with his surroundings,” Symonds said. “He is enjoying racing again and enjoying finding more and more speed. Valtteri [Bottas] had a great year last year and I like to think of it as his rookie year because 2013 was so difficult with a car tricky car to drive. He learnt a lot.

“We have a great pairing and continuity built up from 2014, when it was working at a high level towards the end of last year. We’ve not made any massive changes this year, just to strengthen the organisation.”

Williams finished third in the constructors’ championship last season behind Mercedes and Red Bull.

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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.