Mark Gillan: It was a character building weekend

Although Pastor Maldonado started the Singapore Grand Prix on the front row of the grid alongside the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, Williams ultimately suffered a frustrating weekend around the streets of Singapore. Both Maldonado and Senna failed to finish the 61-lap race, after eventually retiring due to mechanical issues.

However, the team’s Chief Operations Engineer, Mark Gillan, believes the Singapore Grand Prix weekend was a "character building" weekend, one which the Grove-based outfit are looking to bounce back from next time out at the Japanese Grand Prix. Pastor Maldonado, who looked on course to scoring his first World Championship points since his illustrious victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in May, retired shortly after Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox issue with a hydraulic issue on the car.

"In brief it was an extremely frustrating weekend." Explained Mark Gillan, "It was what I would call a character building weekend, with the high expectations following a front row qualification and fast race pace ultimately dashed due to a double DNF and a risky strategy call. It [the pace of the FW34] gives us a tremendous amount of confidence. We saw that the car was capable of qualifying on the front row and that the race pace was equally impressive."

Prior to the Singapore Grand Prix, the Williams duo had only suffered from two retirements due to mechanical issues all season. This tremendous track record was brought to a sudden end during the 61-lap race, when both drivers were struck with two separate mechanical issues. Although Williams are confident the Singapore heat did not contribute to the issues, the team are currently investigating the causes of the issues so they do not reappear in the remaining six races.

“We are currently investigating the failures and have full confidence in getting to the root cause quickly and implementing the required fixes as soon as possible.” Said Mark Gillan, “At this stage we do not believe that the heat played a part in the failures.”

Bruno Senna’s retirement came in the closing stages of the race, after the Brazilian driver had impressed many by clawing his way up through the field after starting a lowly 22nd on the grid. However, once the 28-year-old emerged from his car after retiring, Senna complained of burns on his back. The team are currently investigating as to what might have caused these mysterious burns to their driver.

“We have a good idea [what caused them] but are still investigating just to make sure that we have covered all potential cause.” Explained Mark Gillan, as the team prepare to head to Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Williams haven’t won at the circuit since 1996, when Damon Hill became the World Champion for the team after a season-long battle with team-mate Jacques Villeneuve. The Grove-based outfit expect another strong performance in Japan, and are striving to score further valuable World Championship points.

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