Spanish GP: Williams Racing Friday Practice Review
By Williams Racing
May 21 2022
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Williams Racing
Spanish GP Friday
Practice Review |
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Nicholas Latifi:
"Our focus today was on trying a lot of different things and parts
on the car. We didn’t come here with upgrades, but instead different
parts to understand and try to optimise the package and, without
sugar-coating it, we were very far off. It’s been a bit of
head-scratching as it’s not just one problem we are facing, but there
are a lot of different issues we need to address. I think in FP1
especially it was extremely out of the window and it felt like I was
driving a completely different car, but for the long-term learning for
the team it’s important, especially at a track like this where we know
how the car should feel. So it’s been good in that sense to understand
the set-up options we have, but I think we have a lot of work to do
tonight to go into the details and fine-tune everything ahead of
tomorrow." |
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Alex Albon:
"I think I got back up to speed pretty quickly after missing FP1
due to Nyck driving; every driver does enough laps around here that we
know the circuit like the back of our hands, so it was a good session to
miss in that respect. On track, we’re not as quick as we’d like to be,
so our focus tonight is to look over the data to see what we can improve
going into Saturday. We can see already that tyre degradation will be a
challenge this weekend. It’s not something that’s been a huge issue so
far this season, but I’m expecting that there will be a lot of emphasis
on tyre management due to the nature of the track, so that could make
things interesting in both Qualifying and the race." |
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Nyck de Vries:
"I will admit I was very nervous ahead of FP1! I’m racing and
fighting for championships away from F1, but making your Formula One
debut is very unique and special, so I am very grateful for the
opportunity. But when you get into the car and start the engine you
forget everything around you and you’re alone with the car; all those
nerves go away and you focus on your job. It wasn’t easy to jump in not
knowing the car or the tyres and everything was new, but I gave myself
the time to adapt and I’m pretty satisfied with my performance. I’m
always critical of myself so I think there was more on the table, but
I’m happy and positive about my first experience with Williams." |
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Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"We tried
some new components on the car today and collected some useful data,
which will allow us to decide how to build the cars for tomorrow. Nyck
did an excellent job in FP1 to understand the car and complete the
programme as planned; these cars are not easy to drive, especially when
the track is so hot, and he did a good job of coming to terms with that
and learning how the tyres behave. Nicholas ran most of the test items
today with Nyck and Alex acting as the baseline and whilst this gave
Nicholas few more balance issues than he would’ve liked, he was able to
provide some good feedback, which will help us get the most from the new
parts. Alex had a short day and whilst he knows Barcelona very well,
there is no substitute for time in the car. However, he was up to speed
quickly in FP2 and was able to understand the requirements of the Soft
tyre during that session. We have some improvement to make in terms of
how we get the most out of the tyres for a single lap, but even if we do
this overnight, it will still be a challenging weekend and we will be
looking to Sunday to provide some opportunities as tyre management is
likely to dominate the Grand Prix." |
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Practice Classification |
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| Driver |
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FP1 |
FP2 |
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| A. Albon |
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1:22.319
(18th) |
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| N Latifi |
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1:23.011
(19th) |
1:23.197
(19th) |
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| N de Vries |
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1:22.920
(18th) |
- |
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| Quickest Time |
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1:19.828
(C. Leclerc) ) |
1:19.670
(C. Leclerc |
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Practice Conditions |
| Weather |
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Warm and
sunny conditions |
Warm and
sunny conditions |
| Air
& Track Temp |
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29-30°C /
45-47°C |
30-31°C /
42-45°C |
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