Williams’ Chief Technical Officer talks to Sky Sports News HQ’s Craig Slater ahead of the 2014 season finale in Abu Dhabi…
Tuesday 18 November 2014 15:48, UK
Craig Slater: It’s been a great year of resurgence for Williams, how will you top it off this weekend in Abu Dhabi?
Pat Symonds: “Well if it wasn’t for double points, we’d have already secured third in the championship with our forty-point lead on Ferrari. This weekend, we’ve got to approach it as a normal race. It is the final race, it is double points, but our objective is to clinch third in the championship and that’s where our focus will be.”
What do you think of double points? Will this be the last we will see of it? Would you like to see it gone?
PS: “What l think or want is irrelevant – it’s what the public wants that matters, and l don’t think the public appreciate double points so, yes, l think it should go.”
On the track, Nico Rosberg wants some help and he wants it principally from one of your two drivers to get between himself and Lewis Hamilton. Do you feel equipped to do that and how conscious are you of racing in the context of the title being decided?
PS: "As l said earlier, our focus is on clinching third place, but l will feel sorry at the end of the year if we have had such a great year but haven’t won a race. So it would be nice to think we could get amongst it, but it will be a tall order. l think they will probably be having their own race in front of us, but if we get a sniff, we’ll be there."
Looking ahead to next year, can you continue to close the gap to Mercedes – it appears to have closed a little bit in the last few races?
PS: "The development rate at Williams this year has been as impressive as how we came out of the starting blocks. We have got closer to them and l really hope we can carry on doing that through the winter, develop a good car for next year and race it well."
Jenson Button will find out what his future is in the next couple of days and it could be that he moves to another series. That will might mean just one British driver on the grid next year but with all that engineering talent from the UK in F1 are you minded at Williams to employ a Brit again? You have a great tradition of that and you are, in many people’s eyes, the quintessential British team?
PS: "Frank would say we are the English team not the British team! But, yes, absolutely, we are proud of our heritage and it is a shame with the focus on F1 being based in the UK that we might end up with only one British deriver – it will be an imbalance. But there are some young guys coming up and I’m sure if it is like that next year then it will be quite short term."
The 2014 Abu Dhabi GP is live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Extensive coverage of the title deciding race begins at 11:30am on Sunday with lights out at 1pm.
