- Silverstone Test - Day One
Massa: Williams can be 'competitive anywhere'
Felipe Massa says he is confident Williams can be "competitive everywhere" rather than just at power circuits because its updates continue to impress after he topped the timesheets at the first day of the Silverstone test.
Massa was unable to capitalise on the race pace showed by team-mate Valtteri Bottas at Silverstone when he became a casualty of Kimi Raikkonen's first-lap crash, but made amends at Tuesday's test by going quickest after his 42 laps. The pace of Williams in the last three races has shown it to have moved into a clear second behind Mercedes and Massa admits he is buoyed by the direction the team is headed.
"I think it shows to look how much the car has improved during the championship," Massa said. "The updates have worked and the car shows it is competitive when we bring more updates, so I hope we bring a lot more. The chance to be in line to improve the car is there so whatever new things we have in the next race will work and will make the car to be quicker. Hopefully this can always be in line to keep us in front of teams like Ferrari and Red Bull.
"I'm sure today is a very positive result for us as it shows the car was the quickest in Canada, except from Mercedes, also the second quickest in Austria just behind Mercedes, and even here [at Silverstone race and test]. "
At Silverstone Williams was consistently quickest through the speed trap, a testimony to the power of its Mercedes engine, but Massa thinks the team is reaching a stage where it can be competitive in any environment.
"I think Germany is a little bit more similar between here and Canada, but Hungary is a different track. The engine counts a lot less in Hungary, there's lots of corners where you need good downforce. Looking at the car that we have it might be that the car is more competitive in Germany than Hungary but we should have new things for Hungary as well which should make the car better for this type of track, so I hope we will be competitive everywhere now."
Even though the focus at Silverstone was not solely on the next round in Germany, Massa says the fact he topped the timing screens has to count for something.
"Not too much, to be honest," he said when asked what he had been doing in preparation for Hockenheim. "The track today is a little different to Hockenheim. Today was trying something, some ideas for the future, maybe even next year. Also just doing some laps as well, I didn't do so much for Hockenheim but the car showed good pace straight away so it was good to feel the car like that."
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