Formula 1

Williams ‘pleased with pace and result’ at Silverstone

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Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - British Grand Prix - Practice Day - Silverstone, England
Credit: Williams Racing

After another disappointing Qualifying, Williams Racing had it all to do for the 2020 British Grand Prix. With George Russell penalised and demoted to twentieth after his team-mates spin, hopes of a dazzling home race seemed to be off the cards, and Nicholas Latifi didn’t do much better either; he qualified a lacklustre eighteenth after penalties.

However, Sunday’s thrilling race bred a host of interesting opportunities which the two Williams drivers certainly capitalised upon. All in All, the team enjoyed a decent day out- having scored no points once more, but finishing with a promising P12 (Russell) and a respectable P15 (Latifi) for the struggling British outfit.

“We are making good progress and will continue to do so next week” – Robson

Dave Robson, the Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams, was content after a fairly quiet race for his team. Acknowledging that “there is still a lot of opportunity to push the car harder”, Robson was keen to point out that the data gathered and progress made will be instrumental for Williams return to the top in the long-run.

Robson reported: “Silverstone delivered another exciting race and whilst the safety cars bunched the field up, we can be reasonably pleased with our pace and the result. We now have a good baseline to use for some further tests next week when we return to Silverstone for the fifth race of the season.”

Both drivers drove well today and, with the help of the experts in the garage, were able to manage their tyres to the end of the race whilst also dealing with the gusty conditions. the pit crew did a great job and the double stop that they were able to complete during the second safety car period helped us gain some valuable track position with both cars.” – He concluded.

Williams experienced a dismal 2019 season- finishing last in the standings with just one point to their name. However, things seem to be on the up for the historic marque and the regular Q2 appearances are good indications there is plenty of headway being made.

‘This was the first race where we have been pretty fast’- Russell

The ever-optimistic Brit that is George Russell was glad to see progress being made within Williams, and he believes that the British Grand Prix was the fastest they had been so far. Furthermore, he is adamant the team is on the rise, passionately citing: “We are going in the right direction.”

He dismissed claims that the Safety Car aided their result, saying: “After the Safety Car, the car felt strong. I managed to overtake Kimi (Raikkonen) and I caught Antonio (Giovinazzi).

If we can maintain a good qualifying position ahead of the Alfa Romeos and the Haas’ there’s no reason we can’t stay there on merit on a Sunday.”

Latifi had ‘a lot of confidence to push’ in Sunday’s race

Nicholas Latifi’s race didn’t get off to a particularly smooth start, with the Canadian receiving a huge dollop of oversteer and losing places into Copse. Nevertheless he pressed on, profiting from many tyre-blunders and retirements, and came home to take fifteenth.

In the first lap I made a mistake and went off and lost the track position, but besides that I had a lot of confidence to push. It was quite an enjoyable race, as it is much nicer when you are in the fight with other cars.

The rookie, in his first season of Formula One, was also eager to mention how much he noticed the car’s improvement from previous races shining through during the course of his fifty-two lap Silverstone outing, citing:

I think out of all the first four races so far, this was the race where in duration the car felt the best and the most predictable. The car felt alive and it was really nice to drive.

Nicholas Latifi - 2020 British GP
Latifi on the limit at Silverstone – Credit: Williams Racing
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Sixteen-year-old Motorsports Journalist covering Formula One for TCF, follow at @jamesthomasf1 on Twitter
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