MONZA, Italy: Finland’s Valtteri Bottas and Brazilian Felipe Massa will stay at Williams in 2015 after the resurgent Formula One team announced yesterday what had to be one of their easiest decisions of the season.
“It was easy to make that choice,” acknowledged deputy principal Claire Williams ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. “I think they have both shown they can deliver what we need them to.”
Massa joined Williams from Ferrari at the end of 2013 while Bottas has been with the team for five years, making his race debut last season, and emerged as a standout performer in a championship that has seen Williams back among the leaders.
The former champions were fourth overall in the championship ahead of yesterday’s race with 150 points after scoring just five last year.
Bottas, 25, is fifth in the drivers’ standings 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 on Saturday.
“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,” said team founder Frank Williams, who described Bottas as an ‘investment’ for the future.
“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.”Reuters
