F1: Williams wet focus group is paying off, says Smedley

Williams performance chief Rob Smedley says his Formula 1 team's focus group dedicated to understanding why it struggles in wet conditions is paying dividends.

The team has generally been the third-fastest F1 car this term in dry conditions but struggled to maintain that form when it rains. Smedley revealed earlier this month that the team had formed the working group, and used the wet practice in Russia and running in the United States, where every session was affected by wet weather, to try some solutions.

Despite Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas failing to score in Austin due to gearbox damper failures, Smedley was buoyed by the pace they showed in the wet across the weekend.

"I think we have made some good inroads," he said."The performance group allows us to sit down and analyze problems in the wet and then recommend what to do next, and for us to then bring it to the track. It has all been a good process, so I'm quite pleased with that.

"We are more or less going in the right direction and we have had a better race than we have had in other places on the inter. We still have a lot more to do as we are still nowhere near where we want to be. I'm happy with the progress we have made so far but we can't take our foot off the gas. We need to keep pushing."

Originally on Autosport.com