United States GP: Race sees Williams Racing just miss out
By Williams Racing
October 24 2022
The 2022 United States GP would see the Williams Racing Team again fail to secure a points scoring result with Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi finishing 12th and 17th. But it was not for the lack of effort as Alex was to run in or near to the top ten for the majority of the race and it was only in the later stages that he was not able to hold onto what was tenth. For Nicholas his race was somewhat more full of drama spinning early on losing positions and the later in the race be involved in an incident with Schumacher that would see him receive a five second penalty. Given the difficult conditions on the day Alex's result was still a great effort on the part of the team and driver.
Williams Racing
United States GP
Race Review
Nicholas Latifi:
"The car
was better than I was expecting it to be today that’s not to say it was
still tricky to drive. I made a mistake at the beginning of the race
with the spin getting caught out with the balance in the high-speed
corners. I didn’t manage to do any high fuel race running beforehand so
I was exploring as I was going along. We got back into the race with the
Safety Car but in the end, I was fighting cars that were much quicker
behind me to hold them off which was detrimental to my race but
beneficial to help the team. The penalty I received was justified and I
have no issues with it. It wasn’t intentional as I tried to brake as
late as I could, but I committed to my braking point, locked up and
couldn’t get the car to turn."
Alex Albon:
"We really fought today and gave it everything we had. I had a
tricky start with a flat spot into Turn 1, nursing the fronts for the
first 10 laps with huge vibrations, so we had to pit early but then we
were offset. It was a shame, but I don’t think we had the pace for
points today, but we were very close. It was tricky out there and we
tried our best and were aggressive on strategy but with the tyre
degradation, I was hoping to try repeat something like in Spa and hold
them off but the tyres took another step of degradation and once this
happened, I tried to fight but just couldn’t hold them off anymore.
Points might have been too much to ask for but we gave ourselves a good
opportunity."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"It was a
tough race today with both drivers having to pit earlier than planned
due to flat-spotting their tyres. Alex locked-up badly at Turn 1 of the
first lap and struggled throughout the first stint, but to make the
strategy work, we needed to get some laps done before we could pit. He
was able to recover later in the race with a well-managed stint on the
Prime. As we have seen many times before, he is a very good racer and
can defend brilliantly when required. He was able to hold on to a
points-scoring position until just a few laps from the end despite
suffering with some driveability issues in the final stint. It was a
frustrating end to the race but given where we were after the early
first stop, it was a good recovery from Alex and his team. Nicholas had
a more frustrating race and struggled more with his car. However, he was
able to race the faster cars that pitted behind him, holding them up
from catching Alex.
We thought that the FW44 would struggle in these conditions and at this
circuit, and it has certainly been a tricky few days. Whilst it was a
shame to get this close to the points, the result nonetheless represents
a good weekend from the team in Austin and back in Grove. We now turn
our attention to Mexico where we will look to build on what we did here
in Austin."
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