Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams Racing believes that despite the result at the United States Grand Prix, the team can take positives away from the weekend as they now prepare for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The team came into the race weekend in Austin with a positive attitude despite currently sitting at the bottom of the Constructors Championship with the aim of scoring some points.
On race day and after grid penalties had been applied, Alex Albon sat in eighth place with his team-mate Nicholas Latifi sat further down the order in seventeenth.
The Williams team had a difficult day out on track as Latifi lost control of his car and span early on, leaving him at the back of the grid. Both drivers then had to pit early on lap ten due to flat spotting their tyres. Despite Albon’s best effort of trying to score some points for the team, he was unable to find the pace needed in the final stages of the race and finished in twelfth place. Latifi came across the line to finish the race in seventeenth.
“It was a tough race today with both drivers having to pit earlier than planned due to flat-spotting their tyres. Alex locked-up badly at Turn 1 of the first lap and struggled throughout the first stint, but to make the strategy work, we needed to get some laps done before we could pit.”
“He was able to recover later in the race with a well-managed stint on the Prime. As we have seen many times before, he is a very good racer and can defend brilliantly when required. He was able to hold on to a points-scoring position until just a few laps from the end despite suffering with some driveability issues in the final stint.”
“It was a frustrating end to the race but given where we were after the early first stop, it was a good recovery from Alex and his team. Nicholas had a more frustrating race and struggled more with his car. However, he was able to race the faster cars that pitted behind him, holding them up from catching Alex.”
“We thought that the FW44 would struggle in these conditions and at this circuit, and it has certainly been a tricky few days. Whilst it was a shame to get this close to the points, the result nonetheless represents a good weekend from the team in Austin and back in Grove. We now turn our attention to Mexico where we will look to build on what we did here in Austin.”
