Williams Racing have had a positive end to what has been a dire season for the Grove-based outfit with the post-season tyre test in Abu Dhabi.
George Russell, new signing Nicholas Latifi, and test and development driver Roy Nissany spent time in the FW42-01 over the two days, with Russell’s time also split with his testing duties for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport.
Russell and Nissany were in the car for the first day of testing, and completed 87 and 41 laps respectively. Russell’s best time of a 1:40.368 put him ninth, while’s Nissany’s 1:44.760 put him twelfth.
“It was a productive day in the car. We ran five sets of 2020 tyres and gathered some useful information, which will benefit us next season. I am looking forward to Australia and going racing again,” said Russell.
Nissany was positive following his first time piloting the FW42-01, encouraged by the improvements the team were able to make.
“Firstly, I feel great. You know that feeling that you like your job and you know what you are doing. It took me four laps to get comfortable in the car, and from there on it was just building up my pace and confidence,” said Nissany.
“We were improving and making our best laps until the end, and we made a few changes according to my wishes. I now feel confident in the car, with a lot of potential in our pocket so that tomorrow morning will be exactly what we need for the last improvements in 2019.”
For the second and final day of running, the car was handed over to Latifi, to continue their test program, alongside Nissany.
Speaking about the second day of testing, Latifi said: “It was a good day, there were a lot of laps in a short space of time. It was very productive as I got to experience the new 2020 tyres, which will be good experience going into next year.”
Nissany said he was pleased with how the second day of testing had gone.
“Again, it was another great day. We started this morning with some aero rakes and a lot of engineering testing.
“It was very productive, for myself, and for the team. We did a lot of long runs, and I made some good improvements throughout the session. Overall, I am very happy with my performance in the test and I hope the team feels the same way.
