Canadian GP: Williams F1 team pinpoints Felipe Massa's problem

Massa complained of a lack of power during the first part of qualifying in Montreal and could not progress into Q2.

The Brazilian ended up 17th fastest, while his team-mate Valtteri Bottas completed what he described as his "best lap of the weekend" to qualify fourth.

Smedley said: "It was a fixing within the wastegate mechanism of the turbocharger that failed, so it will be changed for tomorrow.

"It effectively meant in very simple terms he just didn't have any power.

"It was very difficult to charge the battery as well from the hybrid system from the MGU-H.

"So effectively we were just missing lots of power and couldn't do anything about it."

Smedley does not think Mercedes had had this problem before and added the team plans to replace the part without taking a penalty as per the regulations.

"We're replacing like for like and we're replacing it for reliability reasons," he said.

"Clearly we can do that under parc ferme, as long as we get permission from the FIA that's allowed under parc ferme and that will give us no further ramifications."

Massa added: "These things can happen, when there is a technical problem you cannot do anything.

"We just change what needs to be changed and tomorrow is another day.

"It was going to be a good qualifying for us, the car was competitive, maybe we could have both cars in the top five but we just have one.

"But overtaking is possible and I hope we can do many tomorrow."

WILLIAMS NEEDS TO BE 'REACTIVE'

Williams's low-risk strategy has paid off this season, with the team consistently collecting points to sit third in the constructors' championship.

But with teams having very little long-run data for Montreal because rain and red flags limited running in practice, being reactive will be key in Sunday's race.

Bottas said Williams must be ready to change its approach should the situation warrant it.

"I think we need to be open-minded," said Bottas. "We need to be ready to react to what tyre works how, we need to be reactive tomorrow.

"I would think if there is no big threat from behind, we are ready to take some risks and try something different if it is possible.

"We need to be clever to take all points available, but if we see no massive challenge behind, I'm sure as a team we are hungry for better results than what we had so far this season."