United States GP: Difficult Friday for Williams Racing


By Williams Racing
October 23 2021

Friday practice for the 2021 United States GP would turn out to be a difficult time for the Williams Racing Team with the high temperatures making the running quite tricky in terms of tyre management. George Russell and Nicholas Laatifi would finish well down the times in 19th & 18th. George would see his pace actually drop off between the two sessions. Now comes a lot of overnight work to find a solution to these issues. But for George his weekend had taken on the considerations coming from an engine change that will see him have to start from the rear of the grid.

 
 Williams Racing United States GP Friday Practice Review
Latifi
 

Latifi 

Nicholas Latifi:
"It's been a tricky day, but despite that, I’ve really enjoyed getting my first proper laps in at the Circuit of The Americas. It's a fun track to drive, especially that first sector. I think there's definitely some work we can do overnight to improve the feeling of the car for both low and high fuel runs. The conditions we’ve had today have obviously been quite different to what we've experienced over the last few races with much hotter track temperatures, so that presents some challenges. Hopefully we can make some gains, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow."

Russell 
 

George Russell:
"It’s great to be back here in the USA and driving around the incredible Circuit of the Americas track. The race here was sorely missed last year. Nevertheless, we had a tricky day today dealing with the high temperatures and difficult track conditions. We’ve got plenty to review overnight and will be working hard and aiming to solve some issues ahead of FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow."

 

Robson

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"Today has been difficult, with tyre management dominating most of our running. We didn’t get it quite right this afternoon and we’ve got a lot to go through tonight to work out a better approach to race pace in the hot conditions. In FP1 the pace was quite good and so fundamentally the car isn’t too bad, but we do need to find a better compromise for race stint pace.

George has fitted a new power unit this weekend and so will start at the back of the grid and this obviously increases the importance of his race pace this weekend.

Fortunately, the bumps on the circuit aren’t too bad and haven’t compromised our running too much. They can cause a few issues if abused and so we will need to continue to treat them with some respect.

The circuit remains an interesting and exciting challenge and we are looking forward to taming it better tomorrow."

 
Russell
 
Williams Racing Classification
 
Driver Chassis FP1 FP2
 
G. Russell FW43B-04 1:36.966 (11th) 1:37.490 (19th)
 
N Latifi FW43B-02 1:37.463 (17th) 1:37.254 (18th)
Quickest Time
V. Bottas (1:34.874) S. Perez (1:34.946)
Practice Conditions
  FP1 FP2
Weather Hot and dry conditions Hot and dry conditions
Air  & Track Temp 26-28°C / 30-34°C 28-29°C / 34-39°C
 
Russell
 

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United States GP: Difficult Friday for Williams Racing
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 23/10/2021 04:48
Williams F1
23/10/2021 04:48
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