But Deputy Team Principal cautious of setting targets
Tuesday 20 January 2015 08:46, UK
Claire Williams admits it “would be amazing” to challenge for the title in 2015 after the Grove outfit were named as the team to watch by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
Asked by Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport to name the "most dangerous opponent", the Austrian picked Williams as the biggest threat to Mercedes' supremecy.
Williams took the only non-Mercedes pole position of last season when Felipe Massa topped qualifying in Austria, but despite regularly being best of the rest, they failed to add to their 114 victories – the last of which came in 2012.
“That’s a real compliment from Toto – they did such an amazing job at Mercedes,” Williams told Sky Sports Online. “We were showing that we could take the fight and we were closing the gap to Mercedes at the end of last season.
“I think we’ve got to see where everyone else is. At Williams we don’t really like talking about expectations, hopes or dreams for the forthcoming season but there are so many variables. We’ve got to see where everyone is, but if we can take that fight to Mercedes and deliver that challenge and challenge for the title this year then that would be amazing.
“It’s getting to the race track in Australia, then we will know what the reality is.”
Williams will again be powered by Mercedes in 2015 and the engine is expected to once more be the dominant power unit on the grid. Williams says that will allow the Grove team to focus on their chassis.
“All I care about is that we’ve got the Mercedes engine in our car and it’s the best engine and as long as they can keep that development curve and keep matching what other people are doing and keeping that gap then I don’t have a huge amount to worry about," she added. "It’s about what we can do with our chassis that’s important and our aerodynamics package in order to make sure we can close that gap to Mercedes."
Williams finished third in the 2014 Constructors' Championship, 381 points behind champions Mercedes and 85 points behind Red Bull, which was their highest position since 2003.
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