Williams Racing Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson lamented a “tough” weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix, at which both Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi suffered on-track incidents that led to a double retirement for the team.
Robson described the tough conditions on track, with the surface taking very long to dry and remaining slippery through the race’s end. He said that the performance of the wearing intermediate tyres was heavily reliant on the dampness of the track.
“Conditions once the race started were like those we had yesterday, with intermediate tyres the correct choice for the race start but the track taking a long time to dry. Pace was dependent on whether the wear rate of the intermediates matched the rate of track drying. Even when the track dried, it remained very slippery and racing was particularly difficult.”
Albon suffered two incidents on race day, one being a spin on the first lap that saw the back of his car slide into the barrier, and the other a mid-race crash into the barrier due to a bout of understeer. The latter event ended his race.
“Alex’s spin on the opening lap cost him some places but also damaged the car, which harmed the aero for the rest of the weekend. When he hit the wall again, the damage was too significant to continue and so we retired his car.”
Latifi’s battle with Zhou Guanyu led to a collision, in which Latifi took the turn wide going into turn five and made contact with him, having not seen the Alfa Romeo in his mirrors. Robson said that the incident caused significant suspension damage.
“Nicholas was fighting to hold off Zhou Guanyu early in the race, which ended in contact and suspension damage on Nicholas’s car.”
Robson said that the team has “some work to do” this week as excitement builds for the Japanese Grand Prix, another challenging circuit for the drivers to take on.
“It has been a tough couple of days, and we have some work to do to get the cars ready for the race next weekend. However, we are looking forward to going back [to] Suzuka and taking on the challenge of one of the drivers’ favourite tracks on the Formula One calendar.”
