WILLIAMS SAY they will have “one of the strongest driver line-ups in Formula One” next season after confirming Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa will remain as their drivers in 2015.
The duo have helped to revive the team’s fortunes, taking them to fourth in the constructors’s standings, going into today’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Last year Williams finished the season with only five points, 591 points adrift of Red Bull, who secured their fourth successive crown
“It was easy to make that choice,” Claire Williams, the deputy team principal, said. “I think they have both shown they can deliver what we need them to.”
The hugely experienced Massa, 33, joined Williams from Ferrari at the end of last year while Bottas has been with the team for five years.
The 25-year-old Finn made his race debut last season, and emerged as a standout performer in a championship that has seen Williams back among the leaders.
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Bottas, described by Sir Frank Williams, the team founder, as an “investment” for the future, is fifth in the drivers’ standings this season, four places ahead of his Brazilian team-mate, and has finished on the podium in four of the last five races. He and Massa qualified together on the second row of the grid yesterday.
“The team is having a much improved 2014 season and the skill of our drivers and their feedback to our engineers has proved crucial in this,” Williams said.
“This announcement gives us excellent stability for 2015, but of course we are very much focusing our attention on maximising the full potential of the FW36 in the remaining seven races of this season.”