Valtteri Bottas: Williams F1 team can't afford slumps like Monaco

Valtteri Bottas says Williams cannot afford to have uncompetitive weekends such as its Monaco Grand Prix if it wants to be a Formula 1 championship-winning team again

Williams came to Monte Carlo on the back of nine points finishes out of 10 and in third place in the constructors' championship, more than two race wins' worth of points clear of Red Bull.

However, the team struggled with mechanical grip on the streets of Monaco and was well off the pace, with Bottas and Felipe Massa finishing 14th and 15th respectively.

"We need to make sure we learn because if we want to be a championship-winning team, we can't afford to have a race where we are nowhere," Bottas told AUTOSPORT as Williams saw its advantage over Red Bull slashed from 51 points to 29.

"Somehow the slower the speed gets, we lose more downforce compared to the others.

"But also mechanically we need to look at everything because there is a reason somewhere why we're struggling here.

"We need to find that, we don't know it yet but we need to find it."

Williams performance chief Rob Smedley echoed Bottas's sentiment but added he felt this weekend was a one-off, as it was last year.

"Williams has aspirations to become once again a top team," said Smedley.

"If you want to be a top team you can't fear anywhere. You can't come to Monaco and say 'we have a weekend off in Monaco'.

"Up to now the car has been good enough to get between 18 and 22 points at every race.

"I'm incredibly disappointed, on a personal level really.

"We just have to go away and look at all aspects of the performance here.

"But I think it's very specific to this track. Very specific with the track layout and possibly a little bit with the [cooler] temperatures we've seen this year."