This morning the Williams Formula 1 team has elected to change the steering assembly on Valtteri Bottas’ car for the Japanese Grand Prix, following the problems that compromised him in Singapore.
Bottas lost a likely top six finish in the closing stages of F1’s recent Marina Bay race, when a problem with the self-aligning torque of his FW36’s steering contributed to him wearing out his tyres faster than rivals.
Williams has been unable to determine the cause of the problem, so has elected to change Bottas’ steering assembly for this weekend’s Suzuka round as a precaution against a repeat.
When asked by the media if Williams had got to the bottom of the steering issue, Bottas said the following:-
‘No, not yet. We’ve been struggling to make the exact conditions; it must have been something to do with the temperature. Everything has been tested as normal with normal temperatures, so we need to find a way to create hotter conditions for the power steering to see if it was something related to that.
‘In normal checks there was nothing, but I’m sure there was something wrong, so we need to make sure we get the test done in the same conditions [as Singapore], understand what it is and make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
Even though the reason Williams haven’t gotten to the bottom of their steering issues which occurred on Bottas’ car, it is clear that they are still investigating and looking into the reasons it occurred. And I think it is the correct decision by the Williams team to change the steering assembly for Suzuka to avoid a repeat of Singapore for Bottas in the race on Sunday.
Williams will trial a major aerodynamic upgrade during tomorrow’s free practice sessions and Bottas said Williams’ Singapore form (on the sort of twisty circuit that hasn’t suited the FW36 this year) gave him added confidence Williams will be strong for the remainder of the campaign. Bottas in the latter stages of his interview said the following when asked on the subject:-
‘It was nice to see how well we performed in qualifying at Singapore and that we were closer to pole position than we expected. That gives me confidence for the rest of the year. We can do well at any track. We have some updates to try tomorrow, and if they work that will benefit all races for the rest of the year.’
As Bottas says it was nice to see the Williams drivers near the front of the grid fighting for Pole Position in Singapore two weeks ago. This will give Bottas the confidence in the last remaining races to push for the best result that he can achieve in the car.
As for the upgrade that Williams is bringing to Suzuka to try tomorrow, if it works effectively, this could boost their performance even more and help them retain third in the Constructors Championship ahead of Ferrari. But you can be sure that both teams will be working to compete against other and it will be a battle to keep an eye on in the remaining races of the season.
But overall, I think Williams made the right choice to replace the steering assembly for Suzuka on Bottas’ car in order to avoid a repeat of Singapore. It is clear that Williams still need to work on why this issue has occurred on Bottas’ car, but at least they have eliminated the risk slightly of it happening to him again this weekend. But hopefully this will not happen to Bottas again this weekend and Williams have a answer to this fairly soon.
