03/04/2014
NEWS STORY
Claire Williams has apologised for her team's attempt to impose team orders in Malaysia by telling Felipe Massa to allow teammate Valtteri Bottas to pass.
Running seventh and eighth, and in pursuit of Jenson Button, the lead Brazilian was advised to allow his teammate by, his crew telling him that the Finn was quicker. Even as the words were uttered, fans around the world groaned in sympathy, recalling the Massa receiving the same call when leading Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso during the 2010 German Grand Prix. Indeed, the wording of the command 'he is quicker than you' was almost verbatim.
Despite continued 'demands' from the pit wall, and pleas from Bottas, the Brazilian didn't slow and didn't allow him past, leading to an obvious atmosphere within the team afterwards. In a post-race interview Williams attempted to play down the row but to no avail.
Today, ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, Williams admitted that the call to Massa was wrong.
"Our fans expect us as a team to let our drivers race, and that's the overriding disappointment," she told reporters. "For our fans we want to apologise for that because we didn't handle it in the best way, and to let them down is not the way we want to go.
"We didn't handle the situation for either of our drivers particularly well either," she admitted, "so of course we've apologised to our drivers."
According to Williams, the call to Massa came about due to an unspecified scenario that unfolded during the race and that the team had been unprepared.
"Now we have procedures in place so if it does happen again then we are prepared for that," she admitted, "and although you can't prepare for every scenario, hopefully we've got things covered.
"The instruction that was given in the way it was given, considering history, wasn't the most advised," she added. "But engineers, sat on a pit wall that is a highly pressurised environment, are people and people can sometimes make the wrong calls. We're only human, at the end of the day. But as long as we correct them and hold our hands up, that's the most important thing."
Outwardly, both drivers seem happy with Williams explanation.
"I believe that what happened in the last race won't happen again," said Massa. "Team orders are part of our sport but it needs to be part of our sport when it's necessary. Everybody here is intelligent enough to understand when it's necessary and when it's not. When I do something that is my mistake, I will be the first one to say sorry. And the team was the first one to say sorry as well."
"Things are okay," said Bottas. "There are some things which are quite confidential with the team's rules and how you play it. We don't want to get into the finer details. There are different scenarios, and everything's sorted."
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Chris Balfe