Williams believe they can challenge Mercedes for victory at both the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix according to head of vehicle dynamics Rob Smedley.
Despite claims by technical director Pat Symonds that the FW36 is only the third fastest car behind Mercedes and Red Bull, Smedley reckons the layout of Spa and Monza will suit their car.
“It’s a possibility,” he said when asked if wins were possible.
“Both of those tracks will suit our car very well, I would have thought. That’s mainly because the power sensitivity at those tracks is very high, so every 1bhp you have is worth more than at other tracks, and the drag sensitivity, especially at Spa, is very high.
“We know that our car is strong in both of those areas. Additionally, in somewhere like Spa, with harder compounds, it can sometimes be quite difficult to get the tyres turned on and I think our car can do that, especially when it’s a front-end problem. I’m reasonably confident that our car can go well in both of those races, but I’ve said before that we don’t fear anywhere really.
“In Hungary people would say: ‘Williams with their low-drag configuration is not going to be any good around the hot and twisty Budapest’. And then in qualifying, apart from the Mercedes, we were right there just 0.1s off the Red Bull.”
At present, only Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has beaten Mercedes this season.
