Canadian GP: Williams Racing Grand Prix Preview
By Williams Racing
June 16 2022
After an absence of several years the Williams Racing Team would return to the city of Montreal and the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve for the 2022 Canadian GP. This race has significance for the team as one of its drivers, Nicholas Latifi, is Canadian as as such this race is his home event. Both Nicholas and team-mate Alex Albon are excited to return to Canada for this event while for the team it is another opportunity to secure a positive result especially after the frustrations of the last race in Baku. It certainly is a race where the team aims to get their season truly back on track.
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Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
The Canadian Grand Prix makes a very welcome return to the calendar
having been missing for the last two years due to the pandemic. Both the
city of Montreal and the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve itself are
traditional highlights on the Formula 1 calendar and as a team we are
looking forward to getting back there.
The layout of the circuit lends itself to good racing and overtaking and
makes multiple stint strategies attractive.
Pirelli bring their softest compounds, which are the same as we used in
Monaco and Baku. However, the combination of the circuit layout and
tarmac roughness make this circuit unique in terms of tyre behaviour.
Having not seen the circuit for a couple of years, we will need to see
how the tarmac has evolved since we were last there.
Aerodynamic efficiency, PU power and strong braking performance are all
key to lap time in Montreal and must be traded against bump and kerb
riding, especially with the current generation of F1 cars. As always, we
will be using the sessions on Friday to look at these trades as well as
understanding the tyre behaviour.
For Nicholas, the recent Covid-19 interruptions to the F1 calendar mean
that this event marks his first full home F1 weekend. The whole team are
looking forward to the local support that Nicholas will get.
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Nicholas Latifi:
I’m super excited to finally be heading to Canada for my first home
race! Getting the opportunity to compete at home and seeing all the
Canadian fans will be a great feeling. It’s another track with long
straights, which we seem competitive on. However, some corners may not
be particularly well suited to our car, based off my previous experience
from FP1 sessions, so that might balance us out a little bit. With it
being a double-header, we’ve got the chance to put Baku behind us and
immediately use what we’ve learned to make the most out of this weekend.
Alex
Albon:
Canada is a cool circuit and it’s great to come back. I’ve raced there
once before in 2019 and it’s a nice mix of chicanes with a good flow to
it. So, if you’re good in chicanes you tend to go pretty well around
there. You’ve also got the walls which make it really exciting to drive.
I really enjoying being in Montreal and obviously it’s a home race for
Nicky. I can’t wait for the weekend to get started. |
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Race Data
Friday:
Practice 1: 14:00 - 15:00
Practice 2: 17:00 - 18:00
Saturday:
Practice 3: 13:00 - 14:00
Qualifying: 16:00 - 17:00
Sunday: Race: 14:00 |
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