Williams driver George Russell would bet his house that Williams won’t repeat the same mistakes as they did in the early part of this year on the road to respectability in 2020 he’s said in an interview with Autosport magazine.
Williams, one of Formula 1’s most iconic teams has, endured a lean couple of years when fundamental flaws in their 2018 FW41 that the team found impossible to remedy derailed their entire season resulting in their worst season in their entire 40-odd year #F1 history.
If that wasn’t bad enough, 2019 started with yet more issues causing the team to join pre-season testing late and find themselves required to redesign a number of experimental parts the FIA deeming them TOO experimental and not within the regulations.
Worst of all though, their car – the FW42 – was over two seconds off the pace prompting Williams to part company with their then CTO Paddy Lowe, leaving them short of key personnel.
Recovery has been slow but steady, and the odd glimmer of hope in the mid-part of the season pointed to a more successful end to 2019 before the fatigue of a record 21-race season set in and fortunes started to dip.
One man who certainly hasn’t lost hope in a Williams recovery is Williams’ de facto #1 driver George Russell.
His first season with Williams has shown him enough to believe that lessons have been learned from a tricky 24 months and that we won’t see the same mistakes repeated in future.
“I’m 100% sure we won’t have the same mistakes next year as we’ve had this year.” said Russell.
“I can bet my house that we will have a car from day one of winter testing next year, and I’m sure and I’m very confident that we will be more competitive next year.”
“We’re on a very good trajectory at the moment. Obviously it’s always easier to improve when you’re starting off at a lower level, but the signs are good that we’re on a good way.”
Put to one side that Russell, in the same article, admits that he doesn’t yet own a house(!) [figure of speech], but it’s great to hear positive noises coming from Williams at such a challenging time.
It also reflects well on George, who let’s not forget has a Mercedes drive lined up for him in the not-too-distant future, that he can see the silver lining through the clouds (no pun intended) at what must be a pretty frustrating time for him.
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