Alexander Albon hopes the information Williams Racing have gathered across the past two Grand Prix in Great Britain and Austria will help the team move forward with its upgraded FW44 this weekend in France.
The Thai driver used the updated car for the first time at Silverstone three weeks ago and then again at the Red Bull Ring, and he has seen a step forward in performance with the car in that time, even if results do not yet show that.
Albon hopes the Circuit Paul Ricard proves to be a good opportunity to see just what the car can do, and he is pushing to get his third top ten finish of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on Sunday.
“I’m looking forward to France now that we have Austria under our belt and more information and data available for the team to analyse,” said Albon. “Hopefully we can keep pushing and working on the car, exploiting its performance and get a good result in France.
“The track is quite a mixed circuit with generally medium to high speed corners, so will be a good opportunity for us to see what the car can do.”
“I’m looking forward to continuing the development of the car” – Nicholas Latifi
Unlike at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring, team-mate Nicholas Latifi will also have the upgrade package this weekend in France, and he has seen positive signs from Albon’s running across the past two Grand Prix.
Latifi hopes the updates will enable him to find the pace he has been lacking for much of the season, with the Canadian the only full-time driver in 2022 yet to score a point.
“I’m super excited to get to France because it’s the first race where I’m going to have the upgrade package,” said Latifi. “We’ve seen some positive signs from it on Alex’s car so far, so I’m looking forward to getting my first taste.
“Hopefully it can bring us that extra bit of relative pace that we’ve missed and put us more in the fight.”
Latifi believes the Circuit Paul Ricard will see more track limit issues as there were in Austria, but he hopes to stay between the lines and lend his opinions to the development of the car.
“France has a unique track layout with lots of run-off areas, so track limits might be a bit of an issue as it was in Austria,” he added. “[But] more than anything I’m looking forward to continuing the development of the car and hopefully we can get some good data going forward.”
Nicholas Latifi will have the use of the upgraded Williams for the first time this weekend in France – Credit: Williams Racing