Williams driver Felipe Massa has called his team to change its brakes after issues in qualifying for the Belgium Grand Prix saw the Brazilian qualify ninth in wet conditions.
Massa was among a host of drivers to suffer glazed brakes in the wet qualifying session at Spa. The Brazilian has called on his team to switch from its current Carbone Industrie-only set-up to allow the Williams car to run Brembo discs and pads.
Massa had used the Brembo brakes at Ferrari and suggested he would prefer a move back to them in the future.
“Yes. It’s not the first time we had [glazing] this year.
“Normally the brakes we used in the conditions like this, we had [glazing] a few times this year.
“It’s not great to be honest, so it’s something that we are still working on.
“It’s impossible to warm up the [CI] brakes [in the wet].”
Rob Smedley admitted they are looking into the problem and a potential change of brake supplier however stated the current Williams car is designed around the Carbone Industrie brakes meaning any change would prove troublesome.
“You have to set out at the start of the year essentially with your mechanical fixing that fixes the brake disc to the car able to accept both,” Smedley explained.
“If you haven’t done that, then it’s a very big change to make to the car. It’s something you couldn’t just do between sessions.
“We’re going through the process now, but this team has been geared up to run with CI for many years now, so to change to another manufacturer is not wholly straightforward.
“With a certain amount of resource we have to consider where to put that resource the best. We can’t put all of the company on to changing to Brembo material.
“We’re considering the design and considering what to do for the future.
“For next year, that [a change to design of the mechanical fixing] will more than likely be the case.”
