Williams deputy team principal says the team have "got to do better" as they chase third in the standings
Wednesday 22 June 2016 15:17, UK
Williams are currently fourth in the constructors' championship but those running the team are not satisfied, and want everyone fighting to win races again.
Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ's Craig Slater, Williams made it clear she doesn't think their current position is good enough. "We cannot be satisfied with being in third or fourth in the championship, that's not who we are as a team.
"We're not here just to go racing because we love it, we're here to go racing because we love to win."
For the last two years running, Williams have finished third in the standings. Last season they were 171 points behind second placed Ferrari and in 2014 the gap was 85 points to runners-up Red Bull.
Those results were a huge improvement on the ninth placed finish in 2013, when drivers Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado managed just five points between them all season.
In 2014, the team replaced Maldonado with Felipe Massa from Ferrari, who also brought his race engineer Rob Smedley with him.
After qualifying for the European Grand Prix, head of performance engineering Smedley described the team's performance as mediocre, something Williams can't disagree with.
Saturday in Baku saw a sixth and eighth placed finish for Massa and Bottas respectively, at a track they had been tipped to do well at due to their straight line speed.
"Rob and I share the same opinion - that we are a team that has been used to winning in the past and when we undertook our transformation process in 2013 we wanted to get the team back." said Williams. "So of course being fourth in the championship is mediocre.
"It's taken us a long time to get back to third and I think we've done an amazing job in just two short years to do that, but we have got a lot of work to do if we are to take the fight to become a race winning team again."
The team's best result this season so far has been a podium for Valtteri Bottas, who finished third in Canada. Massa's best finish has been fifth, at both the Australian and Russian Grands Prix.
"I don't want to offend anyone within our team because they do put in a huge amount of effort and obviously there are challenges within the environment they're operating - whether that be resource, budget or fighting against the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes," added Williams.
"It is a challenge but we've got to do better and that's across the board. We want to make sure our people are passionate and fighting for better results, not being happy with third or fourth in the championship."
In the same interview, Williams confirmed that the team are in talks 'with a lot of drivers' for the 2017 season and also refused to rule out rehiring Jenson Button.
Williams last won a race at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012, but they will head to the next race in Austria with some confidence. In 2014, Massa and Bottas started first and second on the grid and they've had a driver on the podium the last two years running at the Red Bull Ring.
Watch every session of the Austrian Grand Prix live exclusively on Sky Sports F1 from July 1-3
