With the world of Formula One slowly coming out of the lockdown arising from the Covid-19 pandemic announcements have been made about the opening races of the 2020 calendar plus more drivers are taking to the track or the simulator to get back up to speed prior to the first race in Austria. One such driver is Williams Racing's Nicholas Latifi who was, along with team-mate George Russell, was seen back at the Williams factory heading for the teams simulator.
Latifi
returns to work at Williams
With the world of Formula One
slowly coming out of the lockdown arising from the Covid-19 pandemic
announcements have been made about the opening races of the 2020 calendar
plus more drivers are taking to the track or the simulator to get back up to
speed prior to the first race in Austria.
One such driver is Williams
Racing's Nicholas Latifi who was, along with team-mate George Russell, was
seen back at the Williams factory heading for the teams simulator. In the
months prior to this day Nicholas had taken part in online racing running in
a F1 organised series. But now it was time to return to the simulator at
Grove and for Nicholas he would describe by saying that it “felt weird”
after having spent so much time in front of a gaming simulator.
In his blog Nicholas would comment on his day testing at Grove by saying:
"Heading back to the Williams factory for the first time since the
Australian Grand Prix was cancelled on 13 March was a fantastic feeling. It
marked a big step towards me and the team finally getting our 2020 season
underway in Austria next month. My first day back at the office was a busy
one. As soon as I arrived I had a COVID-19 test to make sure I don’t have
the virus right now. I then need to be tested again at the end of this month
before heading to the Red Bull Ring.
“The test itself was fine – certainly not as invasive and uncomfortable as I
thought it might be! The rest of my day was taken up with some sim work and
media duties.
“We did a lot of correlation work against our previous running in the sim
and we also continued the general prep work for Austria and Budapest. I
drove for a total of three hours in the sim.
“Initially, it felt weird to be back in a proper set-up rather than driving
the F1 game on my home rig. It’s a totally different experience. It took a
few laps to get back up to speed and to dial out some of the driving habits
you pick up on the F1 game. Let’s put it this way, you wouldn’t get away
with them in real life!”
Nicholas would add: "The factory itself was quite empty because there’s
still a lot of people working from home. But it was a superb feeling to get
back to some proper work. Everyone I saw was very excited and positive to
return. For many of them it was their first day back as well and I could
clearly see the fresh motivation on their side.
I have another two days planned at the factory before the first race and I
honestly can’t wait to head back to Grove again. We’re nearing the point
where everything we worked so hard on during the winter can finally be put
into practice at an F1 race weekend. It’s been a long wait. But hopefully
it’s second time lucky for us as a team."
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