Whilst Williams sit third in the Constructors’ Championship, they’re not close enough to Mercedes or Ferrari to be in a position to win races this year, according to technical director Pat Symonds.
The Grove outfit has yet to score a podium in the opening six races, but has come close on a number of occasions. Whilst a top three finish might be in reach, a race win isn’t, even if Mercedes slip up as Ferrari will be there to pick up the pieces.
“Are we in that position [to win races]? No we are not,” Symonds told SkySports.
“In 2015 we have a couple of teams, one of which is significantly in front of us [Mercedes] and the other is the one which has put itself in the position of picking up the pieces when things go wrong [Ferrari].
“Interestingly, last year we probably were in the right position. But on the three occasions when Mercedes did fail it happened to be Red Bull that picked up the pieces. It could just as easily have been Williams.”
Whilst the team might not taste success this year, Symonds believes they’re heading in the right direction and, ultimately, he’s confident their long-term plan will result in race wins.
“That is not a position we want to be in, it is not a position we want to go racing in, we want to be racing at the front and we want to be racing for wins so that is what our long term strategy is based around,” he added.
“I think we can be quite successful at it because we have thought it through quite carefully. It is not a sort of random thing of let’s go racing and see what happens. We have plans in place which I believe will improve our competitiveness and will give us the wins.”
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