Spanish Grand Prix – Williams are set to try out some new updates during practice in Barcelona, while also saying that next week’s in-season test will see further upgrades.
After a troubled start to 2019 after a delay of delivery for the FW42, Williams are finally starting to find their feet and are bringing some updates to this weekend’s race in Spain.
Having missed most of practice in Azerbaijan due to various incidents and accidents, the team’s concentration for this weekend is on trying out some new updates with the intention of these having an immediate effect. This was explained by Senior Race Engineer Dave Robson: “For the fifth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship we return to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Conditions will be quite different to those we experienced during winter testing. Barcelona remains a popular event for testing new components and introducing upgrades.”
“With our Friday running in Baku being heavily curtailed, we have a range of test items for consideration on Friday. However, as the race is immediately followed by a two-day test, we can concentrate on the short-term items on Friday before switching focus to the longer-term learning during the test.”
Williams are one of the few teams to have already announced their planned schedule for next week’s in-season test, which is the last one of the year. Canadian Nicholas Latifi, the team’s reserve driver, will drive both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Both drivers Robert Kubica & George Russell are well acquainted with the Spanish circuit, with Russell returning to Montmelo as a winner in last year’s Formula 2 event. The British driver says the entire team are hopeful that the updates will start seeing an upturn in the team’s fortunes: “We have got some exciting items to test in Barcelona that we hope will guide us in the right direction for the remainder of the season. We hope they will be positive steps, to try and turn our season around.”
