F1: Bottas gets Williams's only new nose

Valtteri Bottas will run Williams's new short Formula 1 nose in China with team-mate Felipe Massa reverting to the older spec, as the outfit only has one available.

Williams ran the new nose and front wing on Massa's car in Bahrain from Saturday's third practice session, after it was flown in. Post-race, the Brazilian said it was difficult to learn much from it in race conditions as the team went the wrong way with strategy and he struggled for pace in the final two stints.

Speaking to reporters in China, Massa said: "It was not a very easy weekend to learn in Bahrain. We only have one nose. It's just down to production. We are going to have another one, but there is only one for now and it is on the other car. We need to wait and see how it is going to work on this track. We need to understand if it is better or not."

Massa believes Williams needs to be more flexible with its strategy in China, based on what unfolfed in Bahrain. Williams stuck to its plan of a two-stop strategy, running two stints on the medium tires despite the lack of pace, with Massa finishing eighth having run second early.

In contrast, Haas did three stops with three stints on the super-softs for Romain Grosjean and the Frenchman finished fifth.

"There were a lot of lessons to learn," Massa said. "It was clear we didn't do the right strategy in the race and we are trying to understand about the tires. Haas did a very aggressive strategy, completely the other side to what we did, and it worked much better for them than for us.

"Maybe it is better to change [strategy] rather than keep your strategy to the end because maybe you lose less positions. We have some ideas to improve that and we are working 100 percent on that to improve. I believe we will find a way to make the car more consistent in the race and better on the long runs."

Originally on Autosport.com