Abu Dhabi GP: Compromised Friday for Williams Racing
By Williams Racing
November 25 2023
Friday practice for the 2023 Abu Dhabi GP would see the Williams Racing Team come away with a compromised series of sessions. The opening session would see the team having to run rookie Zak O'Sullivan seeing Alex Albon losing track time. The second session would see a series of red flags which limited both Alex's and Logan Sargeant's time on track. After FP2 Alex and Logan would finish 16th and 18th. Despite the restrictions placed on the team they felt that they did come away with enough data to assess their race performance as they continue their fight for 7th in the championship.
Williams Racing
Mexican GP Friday
Practice Review
Logan Sargeant:
"Most importantly from today, we have a car that seems okay on high
fuel but is quicker than where we are on low fuel, so we need to try
close this gap tomorrow in FP3. The car feels like we’re in a good place
and I feel good, so I’m looking forward to getting some more runs in
tomorrow ahead of Qualifying. AlphaTauri seem to have strong pace in low
and high fuel but hopefully our pace is good enough to challenge our
competition ahead of the weekend."
Alex Albon:
"I feel a little bit on the backfoot this weekend but I’m obviously not
alone in that, with a group of drivers all in the same situation after
sitting out of FP1 and the disrupted FP2 session. Realistically, the
long run pace is okay and we’re feeling up to speed with this, however
the setup direction is also not easy, so we’ll have to look at Logan’s
side of the garage to see what they’ve learnt from today. I feel
confident in ourselves when it comes to the fight for 7th, so we’ll just
focus on our own race and see how we go."
Zak O’Sullivan:
"First and foremost, I really enjoyed today. It was my first time in Abu
Dhabi and first time driving a Williams Racing F1 car. I made quite good
progress throughout the session, getting on top of the car and the
different procedures. Thank you to Williams Racing for giving me the
opportunity. I can’t wait for the Young Driver Test on Tuesday, to
refine some of the things I’ve learnt from FP1 and make some more
progress."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"Just
when we wanted a quiet, easy FP2, we got two red flags in quick
succession. This led to compromised run plans throughout the pitlane and
cost several drivers – Alex included – valuable track time having given
up FP1. Notwithstanding the compromised evening session, there were
still positives to take from the day. Zak drove very well, completed 28
valuable laps and helped us collect some very useful data. We got some
of the high fuel work completed in FP1 and FP2, which has given us a
good indication of how the tyre behaviour will be on Sunday.
It is clear what we need to do this weekend and, whilst two of our main
rivals have brought significant upgrades to the final race, we have been
able to spend our time refining the performance of the FW45 and give
ourselves a good base from which to attack the rest of the weekend. It
won’t be easy to hold 7th place in the Championship, but we will be
working hard and have made progress in preparing FW45 for the fight."
Practice Classification
Abu Dhabi GP:
Yas Marina Circuit, UAE | 5.281km
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