Dave Robson admitted the top ten was ‘agonisingly close’ for the Williams Racing team in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix with George Russell finding himself in the battle for points before slipping to fourteenth at the chequered flag.
Russell was attempting to make a set of medium tyres last from lap twenty-eight to the end of the sixty-six-lap race and was fighting for tenth with Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso. However, other drivers were on fresher tyres and were able to pass the Briton, leaving him down in fourteenth.
Team-mate Nicholas Latifi was not able to be in the same kind of battle but was able to finish ahead of both Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers and Alonso, the Spaniard having made a late stop after falling out of the top ten battle himself.
Robson, the Head of Vehicle Development at Williams, says the performance at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya continues to increase the team’s appetite and motivation as they bid to score their first points since the German Grand Prix of 2019.
“We enjoyed today and were able to race with some high-quality midfield cars,” said Robson. “The opening stint was tough, but the early safety car presented an opportunity and we were able to capitalise on the slow pitstop that Giovinazzi had by pitting both of our cars.
“George and Nicholas both showed good pace on the Option tyres and George, as the lead car, was able to pull away and avoid a lot of the blue flags and attacking cars that subsequently pitted behind us.
“Nicholas pitted a third time to protect his position to Giovinazzi and the Haas cars. Meanwhile George attempted to thread a needle between managing his tyres, attacking Alonso and defending from the cars behind. In the end it was an impossible task, but we are pleased that we could race hard and that we got ourselves into a strong position.
“Once again, the top-10 was agonisingly close, but this only increases our appetite and motivation to push everything out of the FW43B for the rest of the season.”
