The Williams
Martini team would use the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix to introduce their new
short nose. Unfortunately only one was available and this was supplied to
Felipe Massa. After using the new wing Felipe believed that there was
a performance gain but its addition in the Saturday practice session through
the weekend made it challenging.
Felipe explained: "We mounted the new front wing and nose this afternoon and
the car was very difficult to drive, it was a different balance."
"We had a long meeting after the session, we used the new one and the old
one, and the numbers said it gave what it is supposed to give.
"Then we changed completely the balance of the car, the set-up, so many
things and it was more or less in the correct way in qualifying.
"We decided to use it and managed to improve our time which was important.
"Testing new things like that which are not so similar to the other one, it
can cause some issues.
"We took a bit of risk but I hope maybe the risk can give a benefit in the
race."
As for pushing the new front wing into service mid weekend Technical
Director Pat Symonds said: "Yes. It is a performance advantage so the
earlier you can get it, the better."
Bottas added his views: "It is a step forward according to the data. It's
more than a tenth, so I'm looking forward to having it in China."