Brazilian returns to the rostrum for the first time since Spain 2013
Sunday 7 September 2014 18:31, UK
Rob Smedley believes Felipe Massa’s Monza podium will be the first of many for the Brazilian at Williams now he has broken his duck.
Third place behind Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in Sunday's Italian GP constitutes Massa's first podium visit since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix and only his fourth in as many seasons.
His team-mate Valtteri Bottas clinched his maiden podium finish in Austria this year and went onto claim silverware in three of the next four races and Smedley believes Massa can now enjoy a similar run of success.
“I think he has done a great job really and what he needed to do was to get this first one – once he gets this first one they will all start falling out of the jackpot machine, just like they did with Valtteri,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“I think he drove a very, very measured race today – his degradation and his tyre management was absolutely spot on and his pace was really, really quick as well.
“So really, really pleased for him. He needed this psychologically and the team needed it as well and it creates a little bit more parity between the drivers and we go into this next part of the season in slightly better shape.”
Williams locked out the second row of the grid in Italy and finished third and fourth. But even though they were able to take third place from Ferrari in the constructors' standings to lead the Scuderia by 15 points, Smedley says they cannot expect similar results at all of the remaining six races.
“We’ve got to be fairly pragmatic with it,” he admitted.
“We are going to the next race in Singapore, which might not be the absolute best circuit for us and there are going to be places, just like Red Bull had here, that will be damage limitation and there will be circuits where it suits us very well.”
When pressed where they might be able to repeat their performance he added: “I think if you take the next races coming up we’ve got Singapore and I think the people around us in the championship like Red Bull and Ferrari might have a bit of a better car there.
“But then you go to Japan and it is all about high-speed and power with long straights where our car will be very well suited. Russia is a bit of an unknown for everyone, certainly Abu Dhabi with double points will suit our car very well so it is all to play for.
“Red Bull have a reasonable advantage on us in the championship, but I certainly think between us and Ferrari it will be nip and tuck to the end.”
Although Massa's race appeared straightforward, that wasn’t the case for Bottas, who made a poor getaway and plummeted down the order to 11th on the opening lap.
“We’ve made great starts this year, generally the best or amongst the best, but with Valtteri’s car today it was really bad,” Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds said.
“The clutch engaged just a little bit harshly, spun the wheels and it seemed like everyone and his dog came past so there was a lot of work to do after that.
“Obviously something went wrong, but it was so bad it hasn’t registered on our data as a start so we will have to dig in and see what happened.”
