Williams Martini Racing chief technical officer Paddy Lowe believes the team are “inching forward” after a productive Friday at the British Grand Prix.
Williams find themselves bottom of the constructor’s championship on only four points but brought upgrades including a new rear wing to Silverstone in a bid to move forward up the grid.
“This morning we had some new aerodynamic components including a new rear wing that we were testing.
“We went through a very thorough programme just to make sure that that was working well.”
Lance Stroll had a strong morning session as he finished tenth but slipped back to fifteenth in the second practice session of the day as they continued working to improve the car.
“On Lance’s car, we were trying a continuation of the diffuser work that we had done in Austria with some success and again, that proved to be reasonably successful.
“Compared to Canada and France, we appear to be inching forward which is a good thing and the rear wing is a step forward.
“We learnt a lot this morning about tyres, we had an ongoing plan which is very different to how we normally manage tyre temperatures and pressures.”
Sergey Sirotkin had a trip through the gravel trap in the morning but was out in the afternoon as the team experimented with the tyres ahead of the weekend.
“This afternoon it’s been about tyre work on both low and high fuel.
“I think we have learnt a lot on both the qualifying compound and on the option and prime, which behave very differently.
“We did some experiments during the long run and some experiments on low fuel in terms of how we prepare the tyres.”
Lowe admits the car is not yet where the team wants it to be but feels it was a good Friday and the car is improving.
“We have a very good direction with that and with what we need to do on the long run, so it’s been a reasonable Friday.
“Obviously, the car is not where we want it to be, but we are working on it and as long as we are progressing and moving forward then that’s positive.
