Sergey Sirotkin feels the challenge of Spa-Francorchamps has been lessened by the evolution of both the modern-day Formula 1 car and the track safety, but he still feels it is an exciting track to drive.
The Williams Martini Racing driver is still seeking his first points finish of the season heading into the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, with his best result of his rookie campaign having been thirteenth place, which he achieved in the Austrian Grand Prix back in July.
Sirotkin says coming back off the summer break to race at such a legendary circuit at Spa-Francorchamps is something to look forward to, not just for him but for all the drivers on the Formula 1 grid.
“Spa is one of the biggest races in the F1 Championship, one which everyone is looking forward to racing at,” said Sirotkin. “With the current cars and track safety evolution, it has become much less risky and challenging for the drivers, but it is still an exciting track.
“It’s a great location and after the summer break, it will be nice to come back fresh and race at such a great circuit!”
Williams has been cut adrift at the bottom of the championship standings with Lance Stroll’s eighth place finish in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix their own points finish of the season, and Sirotkin feels that even the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team are now out of reach, even though they are ninth in the Constructors’ Championship.
“I think where they [Sauber] are they are for sure unreachable because they are well into the midfield,” said Sirotkin to Crash.net. “For us I think at the moment the key is to try, I wouldn’t say to score concrete results, but to find our concrete and strong recovery way and start to produce the things which are clearly correlated well to our expectations.
“That’s exactly what we want to get an understanding of the car and how it should perform and what it should do in different situations, which already will bring us, I wouldn’t say into the midfield, but so we can do maybe more things in the race and use this as a base for the steps for next year.”