Maldonado: Aero upgrade a clear improvement

2013 F1 season

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Pastor Maldonado says the new aerodynamic package Williams added yesterday has clearly improved the FW35.

Maldonado had previously described the FW35 as being easier to drive than its predecessor and said the new upgrades enhanced that feeling:

“It’s even more easy this car,” he told media in Barcelona yesterday. “We have more downforce.”

Among the new parts added to the Williams yesterday is a Red Bull-style ramped exhaust, which Maldonado said brought tangible benefits:

“The car feels a bit different, the new aero package is quite big so for sure you feel the difference. It’s working quite good.”

The team expect to have a clearer idea of the upgrade’s benefits after today’s test: “We’ve been focused on getting data, learning them, the new aero package. And we didn’t work on the proper set-up of the car and nothing so I’m very happy.”

Maldonado described how the increased downforce from the upgrade could be felt on all types of corners. “I think we improve some particulars from the aero point of view I think it’s clear there is some gains on it,” he added.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Maldonado: Aero upgrade a clear improvement”

  1. Maldonado seems very optimistic about the car for this season. If it is actually as quick as Maldonado makes it sound, I hope that this time he actually meets or gets as close to his full potential as possible and doesn’t throw away as many points as he did last season.

    Maldonado is clearly a quick driver and he showed signs of calming down behind the wheel at the end of last season. However if he does continue to cause incidents and throw away points in the process, then Williams may start to lose patience with him considering that this will be his third season.

    1. and doesn’t throw away as many points as he did last season

      . this will be key to a successful season for him

  2. I won’t stop saying, that Williams will win more than one GP this year. I think they made the biggest step this year and they are among top3 teams. Bottas strenghtened Williams line up and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of FW35 on the front row in Melbourne.

  3. Fernando Cruz
    3rd March 2013, 10:49

    This year DRS will not be used so much in qualifying and that will be another advantage for Williams. If Maldonado was so quick last year in one lap pace with a poor DRS, we can only imagine he can only do even better this year, mainly if the car is better than last year’s. As for the change in lineu up, I’m not sure there will be such an impact, as Bruno would do much better in a second season with the team. Bottas may be better but he’s still a rookie and didn’t race last year.

  4. I think I’ll be supporting Williams as my “B team” this year: they have two drivers who are undoubtably talented and judging from Pastor’s reaction they have a very solid base. With some of Maldonado’s qualifying performances last year, I think they could be the dark horses on a Saturday and I wouldn’t be surprised to see another Williams win.

    1. I agree, if Maldonado continues his impressive qualifyings the we could definetely witness another win or at least a couple of podium finishes. The less cars in front of Pastor the less probability of crashes :)

      1. @klaas – very true! I just hope his performances towards the end of last year show he has genuinely claimed down now though, because he took the shine off of his brilliant Spain win with a myriad of crashes.

  5. Testing times haven’t suggested that Williams will be ahead of the midfield, but then they openly admit to doing qualifying sims with extra fuel onboard so who knows. The problem is, all teams look to have improved a lot; RBR, McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus are all predicted to be strong, Mercedes has shown itself to be fast yesterday, so that leaves the other teams scrapping for P11 on pure pace.

    1. @adrianmorse – the Sky pundits seem to think the top 5 teams (as in the top three, Lotus & Mercedes) could all win a race, but think the Williams doesn’t look capable of repeating the Barcelona win. You’d think from reading the team’s comments though that it will be a contender for regular podiums at least, so split opinions it seems!

  6. I said it since I saw this car…. Black horse right there!!!

  7. good to see Williams are getting into a stride again!

  8. The rear bodywork on the FW35 is just incredible. It sounds like the RBR ramp exhaust might have unlocked even more performance from such a minimal coke bottle area.

  9. I think/hope Williams have a really good car on their hands this year. It should be a step up from last years car, and with the addition of Bottas who will undoubtedly push Maldonado harder than Bruno did, we could have an epic season. The guys at Williams seem to have a quiet confidence about them this year.

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