Formula 1

Latifi on Williams Test Outing: “I am pleased with the two days of testing”

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Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd

Nicholas Latifi admitted his second day of testing was much different to his first as the Williams Racing reserve driver was let loose on Pirelli’s softest tyres for the first time.

After a productive opening day on Tuesday, his Wednesday running saw him complete eighty-eight laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with his 1:18.573 enough to see him end the day ninth fastest, the Canadian trialling a number of new components on his FW42 throughout the test.

“Day two from a driver’s point of view was more interesting than day one,” said Latifi.  “I got to trial some of the softer compound of tyres, I used the C3, C4 and C5 which is fun to push a bit more.

“I tried some new development items that were brought to the car. In F2 we normally make a few balance changes, whereas this was putting something completely new on the car. It was interesting to see how that affected the car and for me to give feedback to the team.”

Latifi was slightly disappointed to miss out on some valuable track time thanks to a mechanical issue on his FW42 but happy to get some high fuel laps in the bank later in the day ahead of his first free practice outing of the season in Canada next month.

“Unfortunately, we had a problem that cost us one or two runs at the end of the morning and delayed our afternoon session by a few hours,” said the Canadian.  “However, we were still able to get back out and do some high fuel running which is good for my experience.

“Overall, I am pleased with the two days of testing and I look forward to my next outing with the team for FP1 at the Canadian Grand Prix.”

Dave Robson, Williams’ Senior Race Engineer, was pleased with the work performed by Latifi and the team throughout the two-day test, and he feels the Canadian did a superb job with the programme that he feels will be beneficial to race drivers George Russell and Robert Kubica.

“We had a successful and productive morning completing over 50 laps and gathering useful information on some test components,” said Robson.  “The morning running came to an end just before the allotted lunch break when the car unexpectedly stopped on the start-finish straight.

“Resolving this issue took a little while but the team worked hard and diligently to ensure that we could return to the track and complete the most important afternoon work.

“Our in-season testing campaign is now over for 2019 and our attention will return to learning during Free Practice sessions at race weekends. Nicholas has done a superb job throughout this test and this has been crucial to our testing programme. We now look forward to having him back in the car in Canada where he will continue to assist our development programme.”

Robson says the team will have a few days rest before attention switches to the Monaco Grand Prix later this month.

“The trackside team have worked extremely hard over the last week or so in Barcelona and they can now look forward to a few days of rest before we move on to Monaco for Round Six of the Championship,” said Robson.

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