Veteran technical chief says prospect of back-to-back third places in championship does class as success for Williams
Tuesday 27 October 2015 17:20, UK
Pat Symonds believes Williams should be "very proud" of the fact they are on course to finish third in the Constructors' Championship for a second successive year, despite their wait for a race victory continuing.
With a 71-point advantage over fourth-placed Red Bull, but a 139-point deficit to second-placed Ferrari, Williams are likely to end the season in the third place they have occupied since round two of the season.
The former champions haven't achieved back-to-back top-three finishes in the standings since 2002-03, with the team sinking to as low as ninth in the championship before their revival in 2014.
However, despite having scored 19 more points compared to this stage last year, Williams' drivers have finished on the podium just three times and the team's only race win in the last 11 years is Pastor Maldonado's at the 2012 Spanish GP.
But Symonds, Williams' chief technical officer, has told Sky Sports News HQ: "Everyone wants to win, but all things considered when you look at our budget and organisation etcetera, we should be very proud of not just being third this year but doing it two years in a row.
"So I think you can call it as successful season."
Four races of the campaign remain, starting with the US GP in Austin this weekend, and Symonds is hoping Williams can add to their podium finishes from Canada, Austria and Italy.
"We are challenging for the podium all the time and that's really what I think our true ambitions are," Symonds replied when asked for Williams' end-of-year targets. "Of course, we want to win, but the realism is just getting on the podium."
Valtteri Bottas had looked on course for third place two weeks ago in Russia heading into the final lap only to be taken out by countryman Kimi Raikkonen in a botched overtaking move which earned the Ferrari driver a post-race time penalty.
Symonds was unimpressed with Raikkonen's driving, but says Williams have had no choice but to move on and focus on Austin.
"It's tough. Last lap getting knocked off by, really, a ridiculously over ambitious move, it is annoying. But these things happen in racing; sometimes you benefit from it, as indeed Perez did in Russia," the veteran technical chief added.
"So you just have to live with these things."
