Williams spent Friday practice at Silverstone testing new parts, and have decided that their exhaust blown diffuser will remain on both cars for qualifying and the race.
Sam Michael noted that their day wasn’t completely trouble free, with Nico Hulkenberg experiencing some reliability problems.
“We've had a good day evaluating set-up and tyres, as well as testing the new parts that we've brought here,” said Michael. “The upgrades all worked as expected, including the exhaust blown diffuser, so we will be keeping that on both cars for the rest of the weekend.
“Nico's car had a gearbox oil leak between sessions which cost him some time at the start of the second practice session.”
Rubens Barrichello, who finished the day tenth fastest, had complaints about the track surface, which he said hampered his search for the optimal set-up. “I was very surprised by Silverstone today,” said the Brazilian. “I really love this circuit, it is one of my favourites, but it's really, really bumpy.
“It's quite odd and I'm sorry to say this because I'm usually such a fan. We weren't anticipating such a bumpy track, so we had to make a lot of unexpected set-up changes in response. The team handled it well though and did a good job today.”
Hulkenberg said the oil leak didn’t affect his preparations too much today, but the German feels that there is still work to be done before qualifying tomorrow.
“It went ok today,” he said, after finishing the afternoon session twelfth fastest. “We worked through our run plan and covered everything we needed to, even though I was delayed starting the afternoon session. The car had a gearbox oil leak but the mechanics managed to fix it really quickly so I didn't lose a great deal of time.
“I'm not quite happy with the car as it is at the moment, so we'll be working hard tonight, analysing the data so we improve for tomorrow.”
