Smedley certain Williams gets Mercedes engine parity

Rob Smedley has no doubt that the Williams team gets complete parity with Mercedes when it comes to engine supplies, contrasting a suggestion made the team's driver Felipe Massa at the start of the season.

Following the opening round in Australia, the Brazilian intimated that his Williams was too far from the Mercedes' not to be suspicious over whether the engine in the back of the factory Mercedes car was different to the variant he was performing with.

However, after fellow customer teams Force India and Lotus both dismissed that suggestion from their own perspective, Williams' own Smedley played down the assertion, saying Mercedes has gone 'out of its way' to ensure fairness amongst all four of its supplied F1 teams.

"Mercedes has always given complete parity between the works team and all the other teams," he said when asked by Crash.net if he agreed with his driver. "If you look at our speeds in qualifying and the race, we have the same offset to MGP and to the other teams.

"They have gone out of their way to be absolutely fair and that is a good thing, you are working with a serious outfit. They give us a great product, we shouldn't' bleat and say it isn't because they have. As you can see it has won three races and are happy with the service that we get from them."