Williams F1: George Russell believes Williams pushed above their weight in the last two qualifying races, but will be exposed once again at Silverstone.
Williams is on the most revered teams in Formula One history. They have won the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championship seven and nine times respectively. But their last championship win came in the year 1997. Since then, the likes of Ferrari, Red Bull and now Mercedes have dominated Formula One. What’s worse, Williams Racing is languishing at the bottom of the pile, competing with minnows Haas and Alfa Romeo.
But this season, so far, they have shown promising signs in the first leg of qualifying races. George Russell made it to Q2 in Styria, while both him and Nicholas Latifi did so in Hungary. It was only in Austria that both drivers couldn’t make it to Q2.
George Russell exposes Williams F1 reality
But Russell is of the opinion the Silverstone track will not suit their FW43. He is effectively conceding that the performances of Styria and Hungary will not be repeated.
Russell admitted that they exceeded expectations in Budapest and sadly confirmed that those heroics certainly won’t be repeated at the British GP
“I think our pace won’t be quite as strong as we saw in Budapest. In Hungary we well and truly exceeded expectations, and things were working really well for us in qualifying. At Silverstone, I expect us to go back to our reality which is probably a more similar pace to what we saw in the first week of Austria. Nevertheless, myself and the team will be giving it all we have got.”
Williams hopeful updates do the trick at Silverstone
Williams will be coming with updates to the FW43 for the double-header Silverstone races. Head of vehicle development Dave Robson expressed optimism this will help them maintain the gap on rivals Haas and Alfa Romeo. Both these teams have points on the board this season; Williams don’t. This is primarily down to the fact that their impressive qualifying pace doesn’t translate into race pace.
However, the dynamics of the Silverstone circuit won’t bring out the best in Williams and that is why they have been forced to bring in updates. If we are in Silverstone for 3 straight weeks, Williams could once again find themselves languishing at the bottom of the championship.
“We made good progress with the car during the opening three rounds of the season and were able to achieve some good qualifying performances at both venues. We are now in a good position to push the performance of the FW43 harder on race day as we look to score our first points of the season.” Robson said
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“Silverstone will be a difficult challenge, but with some new parts becoming available following testing in Austria and Hungary, we are looking to maintain our early season momentum and continuing to close the gap to the leading teams.” he concluded
