Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado is confident he can make a bigger impact on the Australian Grand Prix now he has got to grips with the car.
Venezuelan Maldonado was significantly slower on his F1 debut than experienced teammate Rubens Barrichello, who finished in the top ten in both sessions. Iin his first Grand Prix weekend Maldonado focused on long runs in the practice sessions and feels there is definitely more to come.
He said; “it was a bit difficult this morning because I didn't know the track and so I spent most of the session just getting to grips with it and it was also quite slippery.”
“This afternoon, we concentrated on long runs and were happy with the performance of the car.”
“As we were good on the long runs, I think I can improve a lot tomorrow in terms of timed laps. I'm confident going into the rest of the weekend.”
Williams tested their new components and Technical Directory Sam Michael was pleased with the running, especially in terms of tyre degradation.
He explained; “that was a productive first day's practice. Everything worked as expected.”
“We successfully worked through our programme, which included running all day with revised KERS components, testing aero modifications and a new front wing on Rubens' car.”
“Interestingly, tyre degradation is currently looking better here than it was when we were testing.”
