A wasted Chinese GP for Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa was well on his way to achieving a good result at the Chinese Grand Prix. Having once again made a superb start from sixth place, the driver Williams exceeded Nico Rosberg despite contact with the Ferrari de Fernando Alonso. The Brazilian dropped back to his original position during his first pit stop, but there was major confusion during the tire change, with the mechanics unable to secure the wheels. “It’s really sad for Felipe and the team.”, comments Rob Smedley, head of the Vehicle Performance department. “We need to see what happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again because this mishap cost us a lot of points today. Having a car in the top ten proves that we were competitive and allows us to remain optimistic ahead of Spain. »

With seventh place in Valtteri Bottas, Williams Racing is still seven points behind McLaren who again finished outside the points in Shanghai. Felipe Massa could have allowed the Grove team to take the advantage over the Woking structure without his bad luck which condemned him to finish in 15th place. “I got another very good start and was able to fight at the front.”, declares the Paulist. “I felt a collision with Fernando, but fortunately the car was not damaged and I was able to continue. There was a mistake made during my first stop which cost me the race because I returned to the track in last place. This is a frustrating situation that we need to resolve. We have time (three weeks) to improve the car before Spain. »

Discover the analysis of the Chinese Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 1957 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.