Massa-Williams: A good deal?

The silly season now has one seat less to discuss. Felipe Massa has been roped in to drive for Williams for the 2014 season. This after Massa was shown the door by Ferrari ending an eight year long association and Williams was unable to continue with their Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado(who is most likely to drive for Lotus). Massa becomes another Brazilian driver to join the Grove based team after Ayrton Senna, Rubens Barrichello, Nelson Piquet and Antonio Pizzonia. However, the point to ponder remains whether the Massa-Williams association could revive the fortune’s for either of the parties.

Will the new association rekindle the old glory that Williams had in 80′s and the 90′s and would the world see Massa of the 2008 season who almost became World Champion? Here’s a take on how both Massa and Williams could stand to gain from the tie-up.

Time to rise from the ashes

Felipe Massa has the opportunity to get back to his 2008 days with a drive at Williams.

It’s been a tough last few years in Formula One for Massa and the once highly competitive Williams. Massa’s career has been on the decline since loosing the Championship in 2008 to Lewis Hamilton and after a serious crash at the Hungarian GP in the year 2009, he has never looked at his best. There were some signs of his revival but with Ferrari favoring his teammate Fernando Alonso, he quite evidently became the number 2 at the Maranello outfit. His last win was at his home Grand Prix in Brazil in 2008 and has had 9 podium finishes since then with the last one being a third place in Spain earlier this year. It appeared as if he had lost his confidence of winning races and was content driving as a dutiful number 2 with Ferrari. It was a matter of time before the relationship had to end as Ferrari struggled to give competition to Red-Bull in the Constructor’s table and Massa’s non-performance made the decision unavoidable for Ferrari.

Williams too has had a serious dip in form and performance. A veteran team with more than 600 races to its name has slowly moved from being a front-runner to a team at the back of the mid-field. After finishing on a high with Jacque Villenueve winning the driver’s title and Williams the constructor’s trophy in 1997, the team has struggled to win races with multiple engine changes in the interim. Maldonado’s win at last year’s Spanish GP was the first since 2004 and the team has only managed a single point in one of the worst season for the team.

New Season, new opportunities

Come 2014 and Massa has an opportunity to make a fresh start and to prove that his skills as a driver are still intact. He has shown resurgence in recent races with Ferrari out-qualifying Alonso in almost every race since his decision to quit. He will be spearheading the Williams campaign being the more experienced driver alongside Valterri Bottas, a driver who is just an year old in Formula One.

Sir Frank Williams would be hoping to see the revival of his team with a set of new developments and recruitment and re-structuring programme.

For Williams, Massa’s stint with Ferrari and his experience will help them give insights to engine development. His move to Williams is also expected to influence (his)long-time Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley to move to Williams as well. Hopes of revival are high at Williams as the Mercedes powered engine is expected to provide stability and competitiveness and with Pat Symond, who has won world titles with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso at Benetton/Renault, being appointed as the new technical director is expected to provide a much needed boost to the team’s dwindling Formula One fortune’s.

Given the circumstances it seems the best combination for both Massa and Williams and the association is expected to revive their lost glory somewhat, if not completely.