Williams should have been more aggressive

The British Grand Prix has to go down as one of the best Formula 1 races in a long time.

It had a mix of everything: dodgy starts for the two Mercedes cars (and the third-row Ferraris), the now-strange sight of another team leading, and just when it looked like it was all over there was a sprinkling of rain to wake everyone up again.

One thing that also surprised me was how close together the cars could run. On this high-speed circuit, where aerodynamics are everything, I would have thought that being within a second of each other, which the leading bunch were for many laps, would have caused handling problems and, in turn, tyre problems, but that was not so.

Perhaps the harder, more durable, tyres that we had at Silverstone are the right way to go.

Even with DRS, Bottas couldn't make a clean move stick on Massa © XPB

After the safety car period, we had Williams running one-two with Valtteri Bottas looking like - and saying - he was faster than Massa. But he just didn't have enough extra speed to allow him to get through at the end of the DRS zones, and trying it anywhere else could very easily have ended in tears.

I know Williams doesn't want to issue team orders; after all, when it tried to do it in Malaysia last year Massa was very unimpressed.

But, in reality, that's what they did by not allowing Bottas through. We saw in Monaco, with Red Bull's management of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, that you can change a team's running order and then reverse it if the driver that thinks he is quicker doesn't do what he believes he can do.

If Bottas really was capable of pulling away by half-a-second a lap, as he claimed post-race, then I think Williams would have a right to say the team is bigger than either of the drivers and given the order.

But what I saw at the weekend was not Williams looking for the best team result when the chequered flag would come out - it was maintaining the best running position at that point in the race.

Massa was driving just as he should, protecting the inside line when he needed to and not making any mistakes. Bottas was also doing the same, giving it everything, showing his nose to Massa, but most of all not making an out-of-control move down the inside.

So, with the two Mercedes cars behind them, which were clearly faster, what could Williams have done to win the race or at least still be leading when the rain started to come down, which is when its cars immediately turned into Manors and had no grip?

On lap 13, with Massa leading, Bottas all over his gearbox in second and Hamilton doing exactly the same to the Finn in third, Kimi Raikkonen pitted for the hard tyres. That was fairly early if it was going to be a one-stop, but not impossible.

Immediately, he started doing fastest laps. Sebastian Vettel then pitted the other Ferrari on lap 14 and he became the fastest man on track. So why, I ask, when he was being held up by Massa did it take until lap 21 before Bottas was called in?

I know every team has its strategy well defined before the race, usually with whichever driver has the advantage in terms of track position stopping first.

Bottas believed he could have pulled away if he'd been in the lead © LAT

But the last thing Williams will have accounted for in its initial plan was that Massa and Bottas would be running first and second in the British Grand Prix.

With the two Ferrari drivers trading fastest laps, it showed that the hard tyre was warming up quickly and performing well in the cooler conditions.

So my question is, why not call Bottas in for his first stop immediately when that information was being displayed on the timing screens?

If Williams had done this, it would have separated the two drivers on track and allowed Bottas to show his true speed.

I always say that strategy is a living thing and to keep it alive you need to react to what's happening in front of and around you. Williams didn't do that this weekend - it just played follow the leader and paid the price.

I should add that the same strategy as above for Rosberg might just have helped him to a better result, but the politics of that within Mercedes would not have gone well, so I do understand the team not going for it.

Williams performance chief Rob Smedley said the team was concerned that pitting too early could risk making a one-stop strategy impossible.

But most teams went into the British Grand Prix expecting rain before the end of the race. Even the BBC weather forecast predicted just that, so in reality a one-stop race (until the time came to switch to intermediates) was possible from early on.

It would be a small gamble, but if Williams had pitted Bottas as soon as Ferrari showed the hard tyres were working well, it would have meant it didn't have all its eggs in one basket and could then react later as required.

Williams was also keen to stress that it doesn't favour one driver over the other. That's all well and good, but the team is bigger than the driver and the most important thing to do is to give the team the best opportunity to maximise the result.

It should be about thinking on your feet, and that's what I don't see enough of these days. Everyone just sticks to the plan and seems to be more worried about not being seen to favour one driver over the other.

Williams, on a good day, will finish third and fourth so if it tries to finish first and second and ends up fourth and fifth (which is where Massa and Bottas finished anyway), at least the team tried to do better.

Once it rained, Williams was out of contention at Silverstone © LAT

The switch to intermediates did come a lap too late, but realistically the car just wasn't good enough in the wet and it wasn't such a big problem.

Yes, Williams lost time, but this decision is all about feedback from the driver, who is the only one that can judge the conditions around the circuit.

Hamilton and Vettel made the right decision and the rest didn't - perhaps that's why they are considered to be two of the best in the world.

That's not really down to the pitwall, so any blame for not stopping at the right time has to go with the drivers.

I've sat on the pitwall making these kinds of calls in the past. It's very easy to get excited when, as Williams were, you are running well ahead of where you should be.

What you have to do is quell that excitement and focus on how you can ensure you are still in a strong position at the end of the race. Williams appeared to be guilty at Silverstone of not treating it just as a normal race.

It's a bit like tennis or golf - some players get to the crucial last hole or the decisive point and freeze, others don't. A team has to treat any day on the pitwall as just another day in the office and make the right decisions for the right reasons, whether it's battling at the front or the back.

There's a lesson in that for Williams. Even though the car's troubles in the rain meant it wouldn't have won anyway, it could have at least tried to put itself in a position to win had the race stayed as a normal one-stopper in the dry.