George Russell felt last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix was a relatively uneventful one for him, and he feels his fourteenth-place finish was justified based on the performance level of his FW43B.
The Williams Racing driver says the race around the Circuit de Monaco was pretty straightforward with not that much happening, but despite his lowly finishing position, he enjoyed his time attacking around the tight and twisty street circuit.
However, he acknowledged that the performance levels shown by Williams during the weekend in the principality were not as strong as everyone within the team had hoped they would be.
“It was a pretty straightforward race and we finished where we deserved to be with the pace of the car,” said Russell. “The race was uneventful, with nothing too exciting going on, but that’s just Monaco sometimes.
“The performance wasn’t as good as we had hoped but that wouldn’t have changed the result. Nevertheless, putting this car flat out around the streets of Monaco, lap after lap was really fun. Next up is Baku and we will keep on pushing.”
“It is definitely a track that doesn’t suit our car” – Nicholas Latifi
Team-mate Nicholas Latifi ended just behind Russell in fifteenth, with the Canadian racing around the Circuit de Monaco for the first time as a Formula 1 driver.
Latifi reckoned the race was amongst the trickiest of his Formula 1 career to date, but he believed he had, at times at least, more pace than Russell in the sister car, but he was never truly in a position to pass his team-mate nor fight for points.
“It was a very tricky race, probably the trickiest race I have done so far in Formula 1, but I think I managed it quite well,” said Latifi. “It is definitely a track that doesn’t suit our car, either on low or high fuel, with the low speed corners and the bumps.
“It was very tough out there to manage, but I feel like I looked after the tyres as best I could. I did have some more pace than George at various points in the race, but ultimately, we wouldn’t have been in the position to score points.
“There was no Monaco chaos, but that’s just how it goes sometimes here.”
