Williams’ Felipe Massa has expressed his concern over the lack of pace shown by Williams during Friday practice at Silverstone.
Massa was a disappointing 10th fastest in second practice, 2.2 seconds off the pace set by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
The veteran Brazilian is expected to leave Williams at the end of the season meaning this weekend may be his final British GP in Formula One.
“It was not a fantastic Friday, to be honest,” Massa admitted, “I expected it to be a little bit better on pace compared to the other cars, so I hope we can improve for tomorrow because we are missing some pace compared to the top teams.
Williams have dropped to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship after comfortably finishing third in the previous two seasons. In recent races, Force India, Haas and McLaren have shown better performance than Williams leaving Massa very concerned moving forward.
Silverstone is a track which is expected to suit Williams and the 35-year-old admits the pace currently is not there.
“I think the biggest concern is that we didn’t show anything interesting in our pace today. I’m not comparing with McLaren or Haas but, comparing to the guys in front, they are massively quicker than us, so it is a little concern for this Friday and I hope we can improve tomorrow. I don’t think there was anything really wrong, we were just not really on a good pace so we need to understand where to go because the pace was not so competitive today.”
Historically, Williams tend to run more fuel and a lower engine setting on Friday, so we may see their true speed on Saturday.
