- Malaysian GP - Qualifying
Massa frustrated by Williams' wet weather pace
Felipe Massa says Williams is still "too slow" in the wet after he could only qualify seventh in Malaysia.
Williams came into the session hoping to challenge Ferrari for the second row on the grid but the rain of Q2 mixed up the pecking order. Massa and team-mate Valtteri Bottas would end up seventh and ninth respectively, more than two seconds off the pace.
A lack of wet-weather speed was a hallmark of the FW37's predecessor, the FW36, and Massa is frustrated the problem has not been solved.
"For sure it is a deficit," he said. "We were too slow, there is nothing you can think about. If you don't do the good lap for a reason or another you lose half a second or a second, but we are talking about seconds. It is a big difference.
"We need to analyse, but if you see how much we lose in the first sector and then in the second sector we lose more and then in the third sector we lose a lot more. For sure, we are using the tyres in a different and this is a point we need to understand It is a similar car, it is an evolution compared to last year. We haven't fixed it, so we need to work a lot to fix it in these type of conditions."
Team-mate Bottas agreed with Massa's assessment and thinks Williams needs to learn from the experience.
"I think in the dry, looking at the times in FP3, it was more or less what we expected. I think in the dry we were still looking at having a good car in qualifying. But in the wet we definitely didn't get the most out of the tyres. Our car is still not at its best in the wet, but it is not two or three seconds from Ferrari. We definitely didn't get everything out of the tyres and maybe a bit less with my car than with Felipe's.
"We just had our debrief and we already see some things we could have done better with the tyre pressures and temps. But it was the first time we ran this car in wet conditions and we just couldn't get the pressures and temps to the target. It is disappointing, but we need to learn from it."
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