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Williams have 'got to move up from fifth' in F1 2017

Williams Martini Racing must move up from fifth position in the Constructors' Championship this season, deputy team principal Claire Williams says.

Williams took only one podium last year and only scored 138 points, slipping to fifth in the Constructors', behind Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Force India.

Talking about the teams hopes for F1 2017, she admitted the Grove-squad will need to do better in a bid to regain the sort of form that saw them finish third in the Constructors' in both 2014 and 2015, taking multiple podiums.

"You need to work in order to effect change and we have done a lot of work over the past few months in order to do a bit more restructuring and augment what we did in 2013," she said in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live.

"I think the future remains bright for our team and I think to try and put any sort of performance expectation is difficult because of the new regulations. We don't know where we are, but we have got to improve and move back up from fifth in the championship."

Meanwhile, she also again defended the decision to re-sign 'retired' former driver Felipe Massa, even if the Brazilian was a bit slower than Mercedes defector Valtteri Bottas in 2016.

"I think this year is going to be interesting from a number of perspectives, not least because of these new regulations, and for us having that experience in the cockpit was the most important thing," she explained. "You can talk about where Valtteri was last year and the ratios on qualifying and being three tenths quicker. But I'd rather have experience in the cockpit than putting in another rookie who you don't quite know what they are going to do."

"Felipe was the best choice for us," she underlined. "We have Lance Stroll joining us this year, he is a rookie and [so as I said] we needed someone in the second car who had experience and so Felipe, having only just left the team, was the absolute choice for us - the ideal candidate.

"I didn't know that he didn't really want to retire from motorsport and so it was fantastic he agreed to come back because for us that was the ideal solution." 

Zdroj: crash.net