Williams driver George Russell has admitted that there still a lot of work for Williams to do before the 2019 Formula 1 season kicks off in Australia on the 17th of March to ensure they’re not adrift at the back of the field.
A delay in getting their new car, the Williams FW42 ready to take to Barcelona for the first pre-season test has hampered the Williams’ test programme, and despite completing a resectable number of laps and, at times, showing signs of competitiveness, leaves the team on the back foot and at or near the bottom of the timesheets on each of the six days of their truncated pre-season test.
“I’m definitely very happy with the number of laps we’ve done but we have not been able to do lap times, we still have a bit to find with them. We were up there but we’ve got work to do.” said George Russell.
“I’d be lying if I said we were not the slowest at the moment, that is a reality…We’re a big step behind everybody else.”
“[But] we made a big step from when I jumped into the car definitely on Tuesday [and] we made a step since Robert was in the car yesterday.”
“Hopefully when he jumps in again tomorrow, we will find another step.”
“My goal at the moment is to work with the team to try and push this car and get everything out of it.”
It’s possible that Williams are simply three days behind everyone else in their testing schedule and that the gains that teams are finding today, Williams will find in three days time.
Sadly though, there aren’t three more testing days between now and the Australian Grand Prix, and so, with more new aero parts to be bolted to the car (allegedly) it might be that Williams are still finding their feet in the first few days of the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks.
But progress is progress however steady and as long as the team keep moving in the right direction then Williams fans could find themselves with more to cheer the longer the season goes on.
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