Oliver Rowland was pleased with how his testing day with the Williams Martini Racing team went at the Hungaroring on Tuesday, even if his running was compromised by the weather late in the day.
The British racer, the Official Young Driver for the Grove-based team in 2018, completed sixty-five laps on day one of the post-Hungarian Grand Prix test and finished ninth fastest of the ten drivers that took to the track, although the rain came just as he was preparing for a long run in the afternoon session.
Rowland felt in general the day went well for him and the team, despite a few of other issues earlier in the day, and he was able to help the team gather a lot of data across the day, including the first trial of a potential 2019-specification front wing.
“I think in general it went well,” said Rowland. “I would have preferred to get a bit more of a run at the end when the rain came in, but I can’t control the weather.
“Everything ran to plan for the team, there was a couple of hold ups during the day but we managed to make up for that time and the mechanics did a job to get everything fixed and fitted in certain times throughout the day. From a team’s perspective we gathered a lot of data and it was positive.”
Rob Smedley, the Head of Performance Engineering at Williams, was pleased with the way Rowland worked through his programme, feeling that the former Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion and GP2 Series race winner had good pace right from the start of the test.
“Oliver did a great job, he got on with it, was very professional and diligent and went through all the data gathering runs,” said Smedley. “He was unfortunate with the weather at the end of the day when it started to rain, as we had just got onto a clean car, so he hasn’t really put in any timed laps.
“But, he certainly impressed us all with his work ethic. Once we did get onto new tyres at the end of the aero testing, he did a really good job and showed good pace immediately.”
Robert Kubica will take over the driving duties in the FW41 on Wednesday.
