Apr.3 (GMM) The jury is out over Williams’ highly-anticipated new ultra-short new nose and front wing assembly.
After a long delay in getting the piece through the FIA’s mandatory crash tests, one version finally arrived in Bahrain on Saturday and was fitted to Felipe Massa’s car.
The Brazilian qualified seventh — two thousandths of a second behind his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was running the old nose.
“We had a very difficult morning with the new wing,” Massa is quoted by Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo. “The car was completely undriveable.
“We were not sure until the last minute whether to use it in qualifying or not. Maybe it’s not 100 per cent right yet, but I think it’s ok and hopefully it can give me a little advantage in the race,” he added.
As for the fact that teammate Bottas is ahead with the old layout, Massa answered: “He did a good lap even not using the new wing, so I think we need to analyse everything.”