05/07/2016
NEWS STORY
The home of British motorsport' is naturally a treasured place in Williams' heart, and not only because the team won both its first and 100th grands prix at the circuit. The track consists of long, sweeping corners and fast straights, making it one of the quickest laps on the calendar. The race at Silverstone is the joint oldest consecutively staged grand prix along with Monza, and is a race Williams has won 10 times, including four consecutive years from 1991-94. Williams was once again on the podium with Valtteri Bottas in 2014.
For Silverstone, Pirelli has made available the soft, medium and hard compound tyres.
Pat Symonds: Silverstone is another strong circuit for us and even though Austria did not deliver what it promised, there is no reason to think that our home race won't give us a strong result. The weather in Britain has been quite unpredictable over the last month and may well play a role in the outcome of the weekend ahead. We're confident that we have overcome the problem that forced Felipe to start from the pitlane and expect both cars to be running the latest front wing, which showed a positive result during testing in Austria. We always look forward to racing at our home circuit, particularly as it gives our factory-based workforce, who contribute so much to the overall performance of the car, the opportunity to see the product of their work race in anger. We've enjoyed good performances here over the last couple of years, which also adds to the enjoyment of this challenging track.
Valtteri Bottas: Silverstone is a special event. It's a home race for Williams and it's one of the good tracks for our car. It's also one of the most enjoyable tracks to drive a Formula One car because of the high-speed nature of the circuit. My favourite part of the track is Becketts, which is a lot of fun because it has a really nice flow to it. The crowd at Silverstone is amazing as well. I'm always impressed by how much support the motorsport fans in the UK give to us.
Felipe Massa: Silverstone is the home grand prix for the team, which is really special, and it's truly an amazing track to drive. It's a circuit with a lot of high-speed corners, so you need to have a very good car in that respect. Typically British, it's a circuit where the weather changes very quickly! It can be wet, dry, or completely mixed - anything can happen, which we've seen many times over the last few years. As Williams' home grand prix, it's an important place for the team to get a good result, especially as we have so much history there. Plus, it's one of the oldest races on the calendar, so I'm really looking forward to what will be a special race.