Williams

Susie Wolff has broken down a lot of barriers in Formula One, and another fell to the Scot at the end of November.

Williams, the team she joined as a development driver in 2012, have promoted her to the position of official test driver for 2015. It's the highest F1 role held by a female since 1992—in the driver hierarchy at Grove she sits third, behind only the two race drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

Or at least, she does for the time being.

Very proud to step up to Official Test Driver with @WilliamsRacing in 2015. Onwards and upwards! pic.twitter.com/IBhlRbskmD

— Susie Wolff (@Susie_Wolff) November 28, 2014

Having entered the sport in 2012 as a development driver for Williams, Wolff initially worked on the team's advanced simulator. Positive results saw her role gradually expand in 2013 before moving to the next level the following year.

At the 2014 British Grand Prix, Wolff became the first female driver since Giovanna Amati to take part in a grand prix weekend. Taking over Bottas' FW36, she was set for a full Friday practice session before a car failure cut her day short after just one timed lap.

She returned to the car for first practice at the next race, which was held in Germany. This time, the car held together and Wolff was able to do a full programme. She did 22 laps and set the 15th-fastest time—one minute, 20.769 seconds. Felipe Massa, in the other Williams, was 11th with a 1:20.542.

The gap was just two tenths of a second, admirable when one considers Massa is a former championship contender with 39 podiums to his name.

Perhaps in response to Wolff's impressive displays, a promotion arrived at the end of the season.

Formerly a development driver, Wolff was been promoted to be the team's official, seemingly primary test driver. A Williams statement read:

Williams is pleased to announce that Susie Wolff will be stepping up to the position of official test driver for Williams Martini Racing for the 2015 Formula One season.

In this role Susie will be driving the Williams Mercedes FW37 in two FP1 sessions and two test days during the 2015 Formula One season. She will also be conducting extensive simulator testing to help in the ongoing development of the FW37 and FW38.

This new role builds on Susie’s three seasons as development driver for Williams, which culminated in driving the FW36 during FP1 at the 2014 British and German Grands Prix. This saw her become the first female driver to drive in a Grand Prix weekend for two decades. The team is currently evaluating a number of drivers to replace Susie as development driver.

Any promotion is a good thing, and some, including Ian Parkes of the Press Association (h/t Daily Mail), suggest she'll be first in line to step up should Massa or Bottas be forced to miss a race for any reason.

But that isn't the case—nor should it be.

Felipe Nasr, the team's primary tester in 2014, had the title of test and reserve driver. Per the team's statement on his arrival, he was signed up for five test days and three free-practice sessions.

The important word is, of course, "reserve"—indicating the driver who will, officially, be first in line for a race drive should Massa or Bottas be unable to compete.

Williams could have given this title to Wolff, but it was conspicuous by its absence in their statement. That tells us all we need to know about the team's confidence in her and how they see her future.

She's an excellent test driver. A team like Williams would not give up invaluable track time to someone who could not provide useful data.

Those who view her presence as nothing but cheap publicity may never change their opinions, but cheap publicity doesn't make up for useless data. And unless your surname starts with "K" and ends in "ardashian," it doesn't pay the bills either.

Testing-wise, Williams clearly believe Wolff can do as good a job as Massa or Bottas. But when it comes to racing, it's a little bit different.

The Scot hasn't raced single-seaters competitively since 2005. That year, she entered two British Formula Three races, scoring two points.

Aside from those two outings, the highest open-cockpit level at which she has competed is British Formula Renault 2.0. Wolff spent three seasons and scored three podiums, with a best championship position of fifth.

Leaving single-seaters behind in 2006, Wolff drove in the German DTM (touring car) series for seven years, scoring points on just two occasions. She left at the end of 2012, and that was the last time she did any form of competitive racing in a recognised series.

And being a DTM backmarker is nothing like racing in a grand prix.

As I wrote back in July, if Williams had any intention of using Wolff as a race driver, they would be working on giving her relevant single-seater experience. GP3 would be a (relatively) cost-effective place to start and would allow Wolff to be present at every grand prix.

But they aren't doing that because they know she'll never race one of their cars—or any other F1 car for that matter.

That's nothing to do with her gender. Rather, it's because there's no evidence to suggest she'd be any good at it. Her record says everything there is to say. The role of reserve driver will go to someone with a good, recent history in a relevant racing series.

But Wolff is not the only woman on the F1 radar. Until recently, a second female driver was involved with an F1 team.

Simona de Silvestro's time with Sauber came to a quiet, barely noticed end in October as a result of insufficient financial support. The 26-year-old Swiss signed with the team in early 2014 as an affiliated driver with the goal of a race seat in 2015, per Formula1.com. She came over to Europe after four seasons in the IndyCar series.

In the last of those seasons, her team-mate was 2004 IndyCar champion Tony Kanaan. De Silvestro finished 33 points (397 to 362) behind Kanaan in the final standings but had nine top-10 finishes—including a second place—to Kanaan's seven.

It's not the stellar record one might hope for in an F1 prospect, but it does show that De Silvestro is 100 per cent capable of racing near the front at a high level.

That her best performances came on street circuits—not ovals—also stands out.

After her release from Sauber, team principal Monisha Kaltenborn told Autosport that she felt De Silvestro was the only female driver in the world who would be capable of stepping up to an F1 race seat.

And having seen the same records, I'm inclined to agree. After years of waiting, the sport had stumbled across a woman who maybe, just maybe, could have succeeded and, at the very least, held her own as a race driver.

One who was also multilingual, seemingly pleasant and personable and whose name would be recognised in the important United States market.

But instead of being given a reasonable opportunity—a few Friday drives or a proper test in a current car—her disappointing time with Sauber won't even warrant a footnote in F1 history.

Wolff deserves her test role. But the only woman in motorsport who not only wants to be in F1 but also looks halfway deserving of a race seat is probably heading off back to IndyCar, never to return.

Maybe next generation.

Last Sunday in Abu Dhabi, the Williams Formula One team capped their best season in more than a decade with their first double-podium finish since 2005.

With Felipe Massa hunting down Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in the final laps, it looked like Williams might even have enough pace for their first victory since early in 2012, but, in the end, Massa and his teammate Valtteri Bottas settled for second and third.

The result clinched third place in the constructors' championship for the Grove-based team—their best result since 2003, when, using BMW engines, they nearly snatched the constructors' title from Ferrari.

The big questions now are: Can Williams repeat—or even improve—in 2015? In other words, was 2014 an anomaly, or a sign of things to come?

To illustrate what a huge jump in performance Williams made in 2014, consider this: Massa and Bottas combined for nine podium finishes this year. In the previous nine seasons, the team had a total of just eight.

Looking ahead, Williams retain many of the advantages that sparked its 2014 renaissance but continued success is not a foregone conclusion.

"It’s a long-term project," said head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley—who moved from Ferrari to Williams with Massa for 2014—at a press conference in Brazil earlier in November. "You have to change cultures and methodology within the team and, like I’ve always said since I arrived at Williams, it’s very easy to change process, you can change process in a week—but it’s much more difficult to change culture."

He went on to reference Red Bull, who spent years in the wilderness of the midfield, first as Stewart Grand Prix, then as Jaguar and finally for four years as Red Bull before their breakthrough 2009 campaign. "They operate very well," Smedley said, "but it’s because the same core group was there for a long time. And that’s what we have to do at Williams."

That stability starts with the drivers. Bottas, who will be entering his third season as a Williams race driver (before that he spent three years testing for the team), is a superstar-in-the-making. After a solid, if unspectacular, start to the season, he closed with six podiums in the final 12 races to finish fourth in the drivers' championship—ahead of former world champions Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen. 

Meanwhile, at the end of 2013, Massa seemed to be limping to the end of his career. He was pushed aside at Ferrari to make way for Raikkonen's return and the Brazilian was winless since 2008, before he suffered a serious head injury at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

The beginning of 2014 was more of the same for Massa, but a pole position in Austria—the only one this year not taken by a Mercedes driver—proved to be the turning point. Massa scored three podium finishes in the last seven races, matching his total from the last three seasons at Ferrari. He never left, but this season still felt like a return for Massa, capped by the near-victory in Abu Dhabi.

The team confirmed in early September that both drivers would return for 2015.

Great year for us @WilliamsRacing ! Love to be part of this. Aim is higher next year - looking forward! 😉 #F1 #77 pic.twitter.com/fG4g3tBSWP

— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) November 24, 2014

The biggest factor in Williams' turnaround, though, has been their switch from Renault to Mercedes engines—a change that came at the perfect time, with Mercedes developing the dominant power unit under the new regulations for 2014.

"We did do a lot of due diligence around that, it wasn’t just a finger in the air and hope for the best," said deputy team principal Claire Williams, per Autoweek's Adam Cooper. "No one really knew where the engines would come out this year, so I suppose there was a bit of luck in that."

Lucky or not, the performance advantage of the Mercedes power unit should continue into 2015, keeping Williams squarely in the fight with Red Bull and Ferrari.

At the same time, Williams should be able to close the gap to Mercedes. The advantage the new constructors' champions enjoyed for 2014 in developing their chassis and engine side-by-side before delivering the power units to their customers will be somewhat diminished next year. The customer teams, including Williams, now have a full season of experience with the new engines to inform the development of their 2015 cars.

And Williams' 2014 car was already one of the best from an aerodynamic perspective. They regularly clocked the fastest speeds throughout the season, with Smedley explaining at the Friday press conference in Belgium:

We’ve looked at correlation between wind tunnel and track, how we improve the accuracy of the measurements that we take here at the track and the process of that whole thing. I think that being able to have accurate feedback from the start of the year from the track back to the tunnel, not only as to what the parts are doing in terms of correlation but also in terms of what we want from a car—not only from total downforce but from car characteristics as well, in high, medium and low speed—has ultimately paid dividends.

With no major changes to the aero regulations for 2015, Williams should be able to retain their edge in this area, as well.

So, Williams have the drivers, the engine and the chassis to continue their successful run in 2015. However, there is an additional consideration: money.

Seeing the opportunity for a strong finish in the championship this year, Williams invested heavily in the ongoing development of their 2014 car. BBC pundit James Allen reported on his website that the team lost £17 million in the first half of 2014, but that difference could largely be made up by the prize money the team will collect for finishing third compared to, say, sixth or seventh.

Williams' title sponsorship from Martini will also help, but Claire Williams told Crash.net's Chris Medland, "I hope we bring in a whole raft of new sponsors for 2015. That's obviously the plan and we have to do it, we're an independent team and costs are as they are in Formula One at the moment."

The other top-five teams in the 2014 standings—Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren—all have larger budgets than Williams. And while spending certainly does have a correlation with success in F1, a big budget does not guarantee big results...just ask Ferrari and McLaren.

Over a longer term, though, the teams with the most money do win more often. To ensure that 2014 is not just a flash in the pan, Williams will have to parlay their strong results into more sponsorship dollars to keep up in the development race.

If they can do that, 2014 can certainly mark the beginning of a new, upward trend for the team. It may not be a return to the glory years of the 1980s and '90s but even regular race wins, or being in the championship conversation, will be a welcome reprieve from a decade in the F1 wilderness.

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Felipe Massa once again stood on the podium as Lewis Hamilton celebrated becoming world champion.

The first time it happened, way back in 2008, he was heartbroken. On that day in Interlagos he stood atop the rostrum, hand over his heart, holding back tears of disappointment.

For 30 seconds he had been champion, only to have the crown snatched from his grasp by Hamilton's final-corner pass on Timo Glock. Massa had driven the best season of his life and missed out by a single point; second place was no consolation.

But as he received his trophy at Abu Dhabi on Sunday, the smile was genuine. Though it had been for a single race win, not the title, he had again pushed Hamilton close.

Twelve months ago, even he wouldn't have seen that coming.

Massa had just been ejected from his Ferrari seat after four dismal, disappointing seasons alongside Fernando Alonso. The highs of 2008 were long forgotten as the Spaniard stamped his authority over the team, leaving Massa further and further behind as the years rolled by.

In 2010, the gap between the pair at the end of the season was 108 points. Alonso fought for the title in the final race; Massa barely held on to sixth.

The gap grew to 139 points in 2011 and 156 points in 2012, before shrinking slightly to "just" 130 points in 2013. It's difficult to recall any driver being so comprehensively outclassed by a team-mate for such a long period of time.

After three years of rumours his seat was under threat and many fans calling for him to go—and even exit F1 entirely—it finally happened. Kimi Raikkonen was announced as a Ferrari driver for 2014, and Massa was in limbo.

Some, including Martin Brundle and Ted Kravitz of Sky Sports, thought he could be leaving the sport.

But as the season drew to a close, Massa was announced as a 2015 driver for Williams.

Though no one would admit it, the decision was as much to do with the sponsors Massa could attract as it was with what he could bring as a driver. He'd be paired with rising star Valtteri Bottas.

The duel between experience and unrefined talent went the way of the Finn through the opening part of the season. Massa had proved he would not be pushed around by defying team orders in Malaysia, but his inability to get results on the board was worrying.

Bottas reeled off five consecutive points finishes in the first five races for a total of 34, while Massa's two seventh-placed finishes had netted him only 12.

The Finn's first (and as it turned out, only) retirement of the season, from eighth place in Monaco, allowed Massa to close the gap slightly.

But in Canada, the gulf widened once more in spectacular fashion.

F1Fanatic's lap charts show that had he shown a little more cutting edge when attacking, he could have had a chance of victory. Instead, he was taken out in a clumsy, high-speed tangle with Sergio Perez on the final lap, missing out on a potential podium finish.

Massa responded by qualifying on pole for the next race, but fell back to fourth as Bottas' superior race pace saw him claim the team's first podium of the year. Further podiums for the younger man followed in Britain and Germany; Massa retired from both races on the opening lap.

With 10 of the 19 races gone, Bottas had three podiums, nine top-10 finishes, 91 points and was fifth in the championship standings. His one retirement was due to a mechanical failure.

Massa had no podiums, four top-10 finishes and just 30 points. He was 10th and had retired four times—every time due to a collision. His car was a magnet for trouble and he was being outperformed by a man now being tipped as a future champion.

But just as he was being written off for the fifth season in a row, Massa found his form and made it to the chequered flag in every one of the final nine races of the year.

At Spa he lost time after picking up debris in his front wing and finished 13th, while in Russia he was hampered by a power loss in qualifying. Starting 18th, he took a wrong turn on strategy and could only manage 11th.

In the other seven, he scored points—lots of points.

More points, in fact, than Bottas.

The veteran scored more than three times as many in the second half of the season than he did in the first, adding 104 to his total and scoring three excellent podiums—each one ahead of Bottas—along the way.

The Finn, with three additional podiums of his own, chalked up 95 points. His final championship position was fourth, with 186 points. Massa ended in seventh, 52 behind, having completed a remarkable turnaround.

Massa's race to second in Abu Dhabi was the icing on what should be considered a successful season.

Long regarded as a "confidence driver" whose head drops when things aren't going his way, the 33-year-old overcame a dreadful first half of the year to record his best string of results since that brilliant, painful 2008 season.

Better still, Ferrari replacement Raikkonen spent 2014 proving Massa hadn't done that badly against Alonso after all.

Massa can fly off home to Monaco or on holiday to Brazil this winter, able to reflect on a job well done.

And I, as one of those who thought he should go at the end of last season, shall enjoy my humble pie.

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Felipe Massa's third-place finish in last weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix was one of those results which leave you scratching your head in bewilderment.

The 33-year-old's Williams FW36 was a shoo-in for the final podium spot behind dominant Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton from the very start of the weekend, with Massa excelling in front of his home crowd.

His eagerness to put on a show for his supporters, however, almost proved to be his downfall.

Massa was a contender for a second pole position of the season on Saturday afternoon. However, after being held up by traffic on his final run in Q3—as the team's head of vehicle performance, Rob Smedley, explained to Williams' official website—the Brazilian, like Hamilton, locked up at Turn 10 in his efforts to make amends.

Despite abandoning his last attempt immediately after his mistake, Massa's first lap remained good enough for third on the grid and was just 0.224 seconds adrift of the benchmark time set by Rosberg, according to the official Formula One website.

Although his chances of impressing in qualifying were, to some extent, taken away from him, Massa appeared to be trying his best to throw away a good result in the race.

He made the type of errors that have cast a shadow over his first season at Williams, when he—much like the team—has often possessed the aura of a man reborn yet has frequently failed to capitalise upon promising positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSD7pk7ZTIM

The Sao Paulo-born driver was found guilty of speeding in the pit lane during his first pit stop of the afternoon, before stopping momentarily in the wrong pit box—as Jenson Button did in the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix and Hamilton did in last year's Malaysian Grand Prix—en route to his own army of mechanics for his third and final stop.

Despite these calamities, Massa still managed to secure a relatively comfortable podium finish, taking the chequered flag 7.6 seconds ahead of fourth-placed Button, as per the official F1 website.

After the race, the former Ferrari driver admitted to his new team's official site that the "strong and consistent pace" of his car and the team's "good aggressive strategy" had effectively rescued him from the humiliation of relinquishing a podium spot to the McLaren driver.

Third pitstop for JB and K-Mag. Sticking with the Primes. Thanks for stopping by, Felipe. #BrazilGP pic.twitter.com/G0y2GdiZiA

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 9, 2014

The consistency of the No. 19 car was evident, particularly in the second stint. Massa—with a five-second penalty hanging over his head—posted a series of times in the region of 1:16.000 seconds, as per the FIA's Race Lap Analysis, maintaining that pace until his second pit stop on Lap 25.

Button, F1's great tyre preserver, kept a similar pace—even dipping into the one-minute 15s on occasion—but as a consequence lost grip having "destroyed my rear tyres," as he put it to McLaren's official website, with the final two laps of his stint in excess of the one-minute 17-mark.

Great job by @McLarenF1 this weekend, Friday was tough but we turned it around & got a P4 in the race! Mega pitstops once again by the lads!

— Jenson Button (@JensonButton) November 11, 2014

The 2009 world champion added that his counterproductive early pace "meant I had to back off during the following stint to look after my tyres," with Massa taking advantage of Button's tentativeness by lapping in the high one-minute 14s and the low 15s, according to the FIA's Race Lap Analysis. His McLaren rival was generally stuck in the mid-to-high 15s and, as the stint wore on, the 16s.

Button told McLaren's official website that "a bit of a miscommunication about stopping" resulted in a delay of his final stop and forced him to complete an extra lap, which effectively ended his hopes of a podium finish. The British driver emerged from the pit lane, as per the FIA television feed, nine seconds adrift of Massa, who had just lost time visiting the McLaren garage.

The time that Button then lost while battling with Kimi Raikkonen, the Ferrari driver who used a two-stop strategy, permitted Massa to cruise to the chequered flag. 

A very popular man in Brazil tonight @MassaFelipe19! What a reaction from the crowd! #BrazilGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/In2rjlnTWQ

— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) November 9, 2014

The luxury of making fundamental, elementary mistakes—as well as suffering reliability problems—yet failing to pay for them is something that has only been reserved for Hamilton and Rosberg for most of the 2014 season. The raw speed of the Silver Arrows' hybrid machine has bailed both drivers out of precarious situations on several occasions.

Hamilton, for instance, effortlessly recovered from a grid position of ninth to finish second in Austria, bounced back from sixth on the grid to win at Silverstone and finished third in Germany despite starting 20th after a brake failure in qualifying.

Rosberg, too, has salvaged victories (of sorts) from the jaws of defeat. He managed a mechanical problem which left him with reduced power to finish second in Canada and coming close to winning in Belgium despite compromising his own race by hitting Hamilton.

The German also crossed the finish line as the runner-up to his team-mate in Russia, even though he was forced to pit on the first lap after an over-ambitious overtaking manoeuvre, condemning himself to completing all but one lap on a single set of tyres.

The knowledge of having a car that will offer its driver redemption, no matter how grave his predicament may be, offers a large amount of confidence to the man behind the wheel. This is perhaps why Massa—among the most emotional drivers on the grid at the best of times—refused to let his head drop in Brazil, as he might have done on another day at another place and in another environment.

Massa: It wasn't an easy race but what a fantastic result for me, my family, & the team. The energy from the crowd really pushed me forward

— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) November 9, 2014

Massa displayed an impressive amount of focus, resolve and determination to delight the crowd and take his fifth podium finish on home soil—but he has his car to thank for sparing his blushes at Interlagos.

For a team with 114 grand prix victories, nine constructors' championships and seven drivers' titles to their name, Williams have been spooked by success for much of this season.

Their car has more often than not sat second behind the Mercedes W05 as the fastest on the Formula One grid throughout the year but has never quite realised its true potential.

While the Red Bull RB10—a car that couldn't even make it to the end of the pit lane on the penultimate day of pre-season testing—will end this season with at least three wins under its belt, Williams' FW36 will coast into parc ferme for the final time at next weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix having achieved a minimum of one pole position and seven podium finishes.

A credible record, of course—but not exactly Williams', is it?

This, apparently, is just the start, the prelude to bigger and better things in the coming years. The poles, podiums and, indeed, the wins that may have slipped through the net today will be claimed with panache tomorrow.

The FW36 is just a stepping stone toward the FW37 and FW38, with which the team will, presumably, hope to claim their first world title of any kind since 1997.

A very popular man in Brazil tonight @MassaFelipe19! What a reaction from the crowd! #BrazilGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/In2rjlnTWQ

— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) November 9, 2014

Rob Smedley, the team's head of vehicle performance, spoke of the need to rediscover the art of winning in the aftermath of June's Austrian Grand Prix—where Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, unaided by a conservative strategy, dropped from first and second on the grid to fourth and third, respectively, by the chequered flag—telling Autosport's Ben Anderson:

I think we have to look inwardly at ourselves and understand how we improve in every single tiny detail, because it's in the details, there's no big magic bullet.

We were racing against a very professional outfit (Mercedes) with a quicker car, but very well organised. And why are they so well organised? Because they've got such a depth of experience racing at that end of the field.

We have to learn.

Although Williams' willingness to take it slow and steady in their resurgence is admirable—the lowly Lotus team are this year suffering the consequences of trying and failing to chase the sun in 2012 and 2013—the vast resources of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren-Honda suggest that the Grove-based outfit's spell as a leading outfit could be short-lived, and any chance to win instantly must be utilised.

There is a fine line between caution and a lack of ambition, which Williams, it seems, are struggling to find at the moment and was best highlighted in the immediate aftermath of qualifying for last weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Smedley—having been asked whether Massa missing out on pole by 0.2 seconds (as per Formula1.com) counted as a "missed opportunity" for the team—was quoted by Sky Sports' William Esler as saying he was, "quite tired of hearing about missed opportunities." He then declared that he was, "happy with third and fourth" on the grid, citing Williams' rise from 2013, when they scored only five points all season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbRz_qaAunM

Such an outlook—relying on the team's previously uncompetitive spell as a marker to judge their vastly different current form and praising an under-par performance as a good result—is counter-productive, leaving all at Williams looking over their shoulders at their more established rivals, as well as looking at what they were 12 months ago instead of what they could go on to become.

Their restlessness as a front-running outfit, perhaps as a result of that philosophy, has been evident across each of the last three race weekends.

I hope someone asks Rob Smedley if this was a race of missed opportunities for Williams...

— Adam Cooper (@adamcooperF1) November 9, 2014

Bottas—as he did in Austria—made a mistake in the dying moments of qualifying and allowed pole position to slip from his grasp in Russia, while a slow pit stop for Massa at the Circuit of the Americas saw Williams somehow miss out on a podium finish to Daniel Ricciardo despite the team locking out the second row of the grid.

And at Interlagos on Sunday, the Brazilian tried his utmost to give third place away—picking up a penalty for speeding in the pit lane before making the mistake of stopping momentarily in McLaren's pit box for his final stop of the afternoon—with the sheer pace of his car rescuing Massa from embarrassment in front of his home crowd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCC0BwEirEQ

The blips that have slightly marred Williams' form over the last month would suggest that—despite adding a total of 53 points to their season's tally between Russia and Brazil—the team's progress in re-emerging as a ruthless force has slowed.

Yet, we should not be surprised given that success is habitual.

It is why Red Bull, the constructors' champions for four of the last five seasons, are the only team other than Mercedes to take a grand prix victory this season, and why Williams—with just one race win in a decade—have constantly been kept at arm's length.

The only way to return the winning feeling is to do exactly that, but Williams, the reluctant stars of the season, have talked their way out of it on more than one occasion.

You can only hope that they don't come to regret it at a later date.

When it comes to drivers upping their game for their home race, few on the current grid can match Felipe Massa.

While world champions such as Lewis Hamilton, who in July told the Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy that the local fans "spurred me on" to victory in the British Grand Prix, and Fernando Alonso, who after his third win on home turf last year told Ferrari's official website that "the emotion is still very strong," are followed by millions, their relationships with their supporters do not compare to that of Massa's.

Unlike his peers—and, indeed, the majority of athletes and sports teams—it is a two-way street whenever Massa arrives at the Interlagos circuit for a Brazilian Grand Prix.

He, as you would expect, absorbs the energy of his pilgrims—and they feed off the spirit of his performances.

That sense of unity made Massa, at his peak, an unstoppable force at Interlagos. This was particularly true in 2006, his maiden win at home, in 2007—when he sacrificed victory to hand his then-Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, the world championship—and in 2008, where he stood as the champion of the world for around 40 seconds until Hamilton crossed the finish line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpE58J3CsHY

Massa-supporting Brazilians have, over the course of the 33-year-old's F1 career, had the rare privilege of seeing their home hero at his very best and his absolute lowest.

And since the day he lost the title in 2008, Massa and his fans have had little to celebrate or bemoan at Interlagos, with his best result at the track a third-place finish in the 2012 event, where, in truth, any driver could have ended up standing on the podium on an unpredictable afternoon. 

Last year's Brazilian Grand Prix was his last as a Ferrari driver, with the Sao Paulo-born racer joining Sebastian Vettel in performing a series of donuts at the end of the race to mark what was at the that point thought to be the end of his time as a front-running performer.

As fate would have it, however, Massa—now of Williams—will this week arrive at Interlagos with his best chance of winning in his hometown since '08.

The Brazilian, having secured pole position for June's Austrian Grand Prix, is one of only two men—three-time grand prix winner Daniel Ricciardo is the other—to puncture the dominance of the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2014. He could be the one to watch at the Autodromo Carlos Jose Pace this weekend—but any success will not be achieved on pure pace alone.

The Brazilian Grand Prix, of the remaining two events of the season, is likely to be the most difficult for Williams. The car lacks the downforce achieved by Mercedes, Red Bull and even Ferrari, who currently sit 42 points behind the Grove-based outfit in the race for third in the constructors' standings with 75 points still available.

What Williams lack in downforce, however, they have in straight-line speed—due to their Mercedes power unit and their comparatively skinnier wings—with Massa and Valtteri Bottas, his teammate, certain to be a threat in terms of overtaking on the circuit's two long straights between Turns 3 and 4 and the uphill front stretch. 

The changeable weather conditions have helped many an unfancied outfit spring a surprise in a Brazilian Grand Prix—Williams themselves were beneficiaries of the weather gods in 2010 when Nico Hulkenberg, in his first season in F1, secured pole position—but any drop of rain over the race weekend is likely to be to the detriment of the team.

Williams have struggled in wet conditions all season long in the one-lap and racing arenas, under-performing in qualifying most notably in Australia and Malaysia and slipping from decent grid positions in Hungary and Japan.  

And with the BBC predicting that Sao Paulo will be hit by heavy showers throughout the weekend, it may become a case of keeping the car on the island—at a venue where aquaplaning is commonplace—and settling for a solid points finish.

Yet the chances of an upset occurring, especially at a stage of the season when the title battle between Hamilton and Rosberg—neither of whom have the finest record at Interlagos—reaches its crescendo and nerves, desperation and therefore mistakes creep into their performances.

.@MassaFelipe19 To drive at my home Grand Prix is always special and to see the fans supporting me is a great motivation

— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) November 4, 2014

Should the Mercedes drivers suffer from a case of the yips in qualifying, Massa could, as he did in Austria, roll back the years to take a popular pole position in front of his home crowd.

But it'd take more than people power for the Brazilian to return to the top step of the podium for the first time since that dramatic day in 2008.

Williams are enjoying their most successful Formula One season for a decade.

The team sit third in the constructors' championship with 187 points—32 more than they scored in the four preceding seasons put together.

This marked upswing in form was no accident.

Aware that Mercedes were set to have the best engine for the start of the V6 hybrid era, Williams made the decision to switch to the German manufacturer before the midway point of last season.

They also took a bit of a risk and invested in ensuring the new power unit had a good chassis to sit in.

Their 2014 driver lineup was also a step forward. Impressive youngster Valtteri Bottas was joined by hugely experienced Felipe Massa, with Pastor Maldonado departing.

The pairing will be retained for 2015—but given their improvement in form and attractiveness to potential replacements, could Williams have done better?

We are pleased to announce that @MassaFelipe19 @ValtteriBottas will be continuing as our Race Drivers for 2015! pic.twitter.com/1ZhM1enY36

— WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) September 7, 2014

Much of the success Williams have had this year has been down to the work of Bottas.

In only his second year of F1, Bottas has scored points in 12 of the 14 races and sits sixth in the drivers' championship. His 122 points account for 65 percent of the team's total, and he has scored four of Williams' five podiums.

The Finn is rightly regarded as one of F1's stars of the future and, had there been a number of vacancies at top teams heading into 2015, he would probably have filled one of them.

As it happens, there was only one realistic vacancy, and that was at a "top team" not currently at the top.

The Guardian reported during the summer break that McLaren were interested in his services; assuming the rumour was true, Bottas made the probably wise move to remain where he is for the time being.

The only downside to Bottas is that he doesn't bring in much in the way of sponsorship—but his performances could easily be worth one or two constructors' championship spots, so that can be forgiven.

When it was revealed that Massa would be losing his drive at Ferrari to Kimi Raikkonen, it looked like Massa may have been destined for the F1 scrapheap. A title contender in 2008, Massa had spent four seasons very much in Fernando Alonso's shadow.

So when he was announced as a Williams driver for 2014, it came as something of a surprise. He'd be an improvement on Maldonado and his wealth of experience would be helpful on the development side, but did he still have his old racer's edge?

Turns out he did. While the Brazilian doesn't quite have the raw speed of Bottas, he has by no means been embarrassed.

A pole in Austria and a well-earned podium at the Italian Grand Prix have been the highlights of his year, and a superb drive to fifth in Singapore suggests Massa may be set for a typically strong finish to the season.

But for whatever reason, and whether it's his own fault or not, Massa seems to attract trouble.

He was taken out by Kamui Kobayashi at Turn 1 in Australia and deserved at least a bit of blame for the final-lap collision with mostly-at-fault Sergio Perez, which took him out of the Canadian Grand Prix.

A smash with Raikkonen ended his race at Silverstone, then he took himself out of the German Grand Prix at the first corner when he turned in on Kevin Magnussen.

Without all those needless DNFs, he wouldn't be 57 points behind his team-mate.

And while not a pay-driver, Massa does open doors to lucrative sponsorship opportunities in his native Brazil—and that's very useful to a team like Williams.

Without a £30 million driver budget, Williams couldn't have improved on Bottas.

On the other side of the garage, they could have found a replacement for Massa, who would have improved the team—realistically, one of two men.

Nico Hulkenberg was one. His performance level would almost certainly have been higher, but Williams would have needed to buy him out of his Force India contract.

Also in the negative column is his now-famous lack of financial backing—he wouldn't open the sponsorship doors Massa does.

Romain Grosjean would have been worth a look too, and he would have been available. He also brings funding—but it comes primarily from French oil company Total.

Williams already have a deal with Petrobras (also an oil company) to supply their fuel from 2015, so that wouldn't have worked out.

For a supposedly midfield team, Bottas and Massa represent an excellent lineup. Between them they bring talent, experience, reliability, speed and a few extra pennies.

Williams had a few options available, but none would have improved on the overall package they have.

If the Mercedes is again the best engine in 2015, expect both drivers to once more be challenging for podiums.

On Sunday at the Italian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa made it onto the podium for the first time since early last season, in Spain.

It was an important result for the veteran Brazilian, as he has overcome plenty of challenges this year, including scary accidents in Canada and Germany. Massa's third place—combined with fourth for his teammate, Valtteri Bottas—was even more important for their team, though.

A great result to end the European season. Next stop Singapore pic.twitter.com/C8qBXbLZAM

— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) September 7, 2014

Last week, the Williams group of companies, which includes the Formula One team, announced a loss of £17.1 million over the first six months of 2014. The loss was due in part to significant investments in the racing team, which have already borne results on the track.

In a press release, team principal Frank Williams said, "Our long-term financial prosperity will of course always be a reflection, both directly and indirectly, of our Formula One performance. The impressive upturn in our performance this season is validating our approach."

Williams are currently battling Ferrari for third place in the Constructors' Championship. The difference between third and fourth in the standings could be worth approximately £6.5 million in prize money alone, which would take a big chunk out of Williams' financial losses.

The Grove-based team trailed Ferrari by 10 points going into Sunday's race at Monza. But with Massa and Bottas' strong showings (only the championship-leading Mercedes duo beat them) and Fernando Alonso's first retirement in a season-and-a-half, Williams now have a 15-point lead. They have not finished in the top three since 2003, during their partnership with BMW.

The Italian three-four finish also matched Williams' best race of the season—they had the same result in Austria, but with Bottas on top—but it was not unexpected. The team had long been targeting the high-speed Spa and Monza as circuits that would suit their efficient aerodynamic package and powerful Mercedes engine.

After the race, Rob Smedley, the team's head of performance engineering (and Massa's former race engineer) said, "We finished where we should have," per a team press release.

That Massa beat Bottas is slightly more surprising, though. The 25-year-old Finn, a superstar in the making, had been on the podium at four of the last five races before Italy, including a pair of second-place finishes at the British and German Grands Prix. Massa, meanwhile, has never regained his race-winning form following a freak accident in qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Still, there have been flashes of brilliance from the Brazilian, including a pole position earlier this year in Austria—the only one this season not taken by one of the Mercedes drivers.

The decisive moment of Massa's race at Monza—his Lap 5 pass of McLaren's Kevin Magnussen—was another of those moments. Massa made a clean start, while several cars around him (including Bottas and Lewis Hamilton) were slow off the line. After the first corner, he trailed only Nico Rosberg and Magnussen. Those positions remained unchanged until the fifth lap.

Then, with Hamilton harassing him from behind, Massa tried to pass the McLaren around the outside at the first chicane. He did not quite make it, but got good traction out of the corner and flew past Magnussen as they came out of the Curva Grande at over 300 kph—no DRS required.

From that point, aside from some shuffling during the pit stops, Massa remained in third and was unchallenged for the rest of the race. In the post-race press conference, while acknowledging how happy he was for himself, Massa said, "It’s really good for the whole team and we will keep fighting until the last race and I hope really we can get this third place in the Constructors’ Championship. It would be fantastic for the whole team."

The battle for third had already been on Massa's mind earlier in the weekend. "It feels like a big fight with Ferrari," he said after qualifying fourth on Saturday, per ESPN F1. "It's clear and we know how important it is—with a team like Williams that's growing—that we get better and better prepared for next year as well and how important one position is for the budget."

With six races remaining, 15 points is a relatively insignificant lead. And Ferrari's massive budget will ensure that no expense is spared in catching Williams. On Sunday, per a team press release, team principal Marco Mattiacci said that, "while it’s impossible to accept a result like this, now our only thought is to get back to being competitive as soon as possible." 

The next circuits—Singapore, Japan and Russia—may not favour Williams to the same degree that Spa and Monza did, but the British team now has the clear initiative. Since Austria, Williams have outscored Ferrari 119 to 75.

After being relegated to a supporting role behind Fernando Alonso for the last four years at Ferrari, you can bet there is not much Massa would enjoy more than beating his former employer. Right now, it looks as though Williams have a car—and a driver pairing—capable of just that.

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Williams received a lot of hype during winter testing for the 2014 Formula One season—and not all of it was due to the return of the Martini livery.

With the best power unit in the field, an exciting driver pairing and new technical director Pat Symonds getting his first full season at the helm, the team looked poised for a renaissance (although I still picked them as my surprise flop in our season preview).

Contrary to my prediction, though, Williams have gotten stronger as the season has progressed, culminating in three straight podium finishes for their young star, Valtteri Bottas. It is the team's most concentrated period of success since Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld scored three podiums at the 2005 Monaco and European Grands Prix.

Williams are now third in the Constructors' Championship, 67 points behind Red Bull. They could be much closer (or even ahead of the Bulls) if not for Felipe Massa's newly discovered knack for getting driven into—by Sergio Perez at Montreal, Kimi Raikkonen at Silverstone and Kevin Magnussen at Hockenheim.

But Williams do not belong in this upper echelon anymore, do they? An independent team, not backed by a big car (or energy drink) company, beating the mighty Ferrari and challenging free-spending Mercedes and Red Bull on a (relatively) shoestring budget.

Is Williams' recent success really a product of their own development work, or have those results been enhanced by qualifying gaffes and unreliability at Mercedes? Did Bottas "beat a Mercedes fair and square" at the German Grand Prix, as he was told on the team radio after finishing second, ahead of Lewis Hamilton?

The qualifying gaps between the top Mercedes car and the best Red Bull and Williams cars demonstrate that, aside from a rain-affected British Grand Prix, Williams really are improving their pace relative to Mercedes, while Red Bull are not.

The narrowing gap in qualifying performance suggests that Williams' improved race results are no fluke. And that makes sense.

Mercedes had more time to  integrate their chassis and power unit before the season and came much closer to maximising their potential than Williams, waiting for their delivery of Merc engines. Now, no matter how large Mercedes' budget is, there is not as much room for them to improve.

Williams, meanwhile, did not meet their lofty preseason expectations early in the year. But they have taken advantage of their extra space to improve and are slowly closing in on Mercedes.

They still won't catch the Silver Arrows—at least not this year—but Williams can continue to close the gap. Do not be surprised to see Bottas or Massa on the top step of the podium at some point this year.

Nor should we be surprised by Red Bull's inability to haul in Mercedes. As usual, Adrian Newey created a fantastic chassis for the Milton Keynes-based team, but his masterful design also left less room for improvement compared to Williams. The car was already close to perfect.

The engine, however, was not. And that is the reason Red Bull cannot challenge the Mercs: They are stuck with an underpowered and unreliable Renault power unit.

Looking ahead, grid penalties for exceeding the limits of the various power unit components will come into play. For Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel is nearing the limits on five of the six components, which could allow Williams to claw back some of the points they have lost through Massa's many misadventures.

Deputy team principal Claire Williams agrees, recently telling the official F1 site, "There is no reason why we can’t be fighting for P2 this year!"

No one will catch Mercedes for the Constructors' Championship, but there could be a dogfight for second and third. Only 92 points separate Red Bull in second and McLaren in sixth, with nine races remaining. And remember, the final grand prix features double points. A one-two finish in Abu Dhabi would be worth 86 points.

Williams have not finished in the top three of the Constructors' standings since 2003, when they were only 14 points behind Ferrari for the title. There will not be a title this year, either, but a top-three finish would bring a lot of prestige—and more than a bit of cash—back to Grove.

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Felipe Massa is becoming the poster child for ever-improving Formula One safety standards after he emerged unscathed from yet another dramatic accident on Sunday at the German Grand Prix.

Going into the first corner at Hockenheim, Massa slowed slightly to avoid hitting his Williams teammate, Valtteri Bottas. As he turned in to follow Bottas through the fast right-hander, Massa was unaware McLaren's Kevin Magnussen was already there.

When the cars collided, Massa's right-rear wheel went over Magnussen's front-left, flipping the Williams FW36 upside down. Massa's car skidded along the outside of Turn 1 on its roll bar before eventually righting itself, narrowly missing the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in the process.

Immediately after the accident, BBC commentator and veteran driver of 247 grands prix David Coulthard absolved both drivers, calling it a racing incident. And he was correct—both men were racing hard into the first corner and just happened to be aiming for the piece of tarmac at the same time. The stewards confirmed Coulthard's view, deciding not to issue a penalty to either driver.

When Massa flipped, the roll bar did its job. It protected his head and barely looked damaged after the crash, a testament to the rigour of F1's safety regulations and testing.

Afterward, Massa said, "Luckily I am OK but I am not happy," according to a team press release.

Luck had little to do with it, though. True, any time a car goes airborne, whether it flips or not, there is a greater potential for injury. Once a car loses contact with the circuit, the driver can no longer slow it down using the brakes nor control its direction.

But modern F1 safety standards have already allowed two drivers to walk away from rollovers this season. In addition to Massa, Esteban Gutierrez was unharmed following a flip at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

It has been 15 years since Sauber's Pedro Diniz was sent rolling at the start of the 1999 European Grand Prix (coincidentally also in Germany, but at the Nurburgring). His roll bar failed completely in what could easily have been a deadly accident. Thankfully, Diniz was not seriously injured, but the crash spurred changes to the regulations regarding roll structures.

This year, Gutierrez and Massa have been the beneficiaries of this progress.

Last May was the 20th anniversary of the last F1 fatality, Ayrton Senna, which also led to many safety enhancements. Today, the sport is still dangerous, but the danger is more from freak accidents than from those that can be foreseen—like rollovers.

In 2009, Massa was a victim of one of those freak accidents. During qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was struck in the head by a loose spring from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn. Although Massa missed the rest of the season with a serious head injury, his crash helmet (and, on that occasion, some luck) saved his life.

Returning to this season, the Brazilian was involved in another scary collision at the end of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. He came together with Sergio Perez while they were battling for fourth place and both drivers hit the wall at high speed. Massa barely missed collecting the other Red Bull, that of Sebastian Vettel.

Again, despite a spectacular-looking crash, both Massa and Perez were unhurt. Again, the safety features of the cars and circuit—which are now mandatory because of the sacrifices of many drivers who died, and those they left behind—did their jobs.

Yes, Massa should be thankful he was not seriously injured at Hockenheim (and at Montreal), but it is not luck that protected him.

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