Williams’ Dave Robson: “So pleased to be back” racing in Australia

Williams Racing’s Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson, is delighted to see the Australian Grand Prix back this weekend, for the first-time in two years due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

After a highly disappointing Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where both Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi retired, Robson is very happy to be heading back to Australia this weekend. Formula 1 isn’t returning though to the usual Albert Park Circuit layout, drastic changes have been made to the layout for this weekend, in the hope that overtaking is easier. This clearly wasn’t enough, as this weekend will see a whopping four DRS zones around the Albert Park Circuit.

“Racing again in Melbourne is a fantastic indication of a progressive return to pre-pandemic normality. Not being at Albert Park for two years has been a real shame and we are so pleased to be back and sampling the new circuit layout.

“Traditionally, the street circuit nature of Melbourne has made for a fantastic technical and physical challenge for the drivers, but also led to difficulty in overtaking. The revisions to the layout and DRS zones should improve this, potentially making it one of the very best circuits on the Formula One calendar.

With the removal of the old Turn 9/Turn 10, there is one fewer chicane in the layout, but nonetheless, changes of direction at low and high speed still dominate the circuit. Braking stability, kerb riding and car agility therefore remain critical to the car setup. The much faster section between Turn 8 and Turn 11 will alter the trade of downforce and drag, but with driver confidence also at a premium, taking off too much downforce could be detrimental, and we can expect to see all teams experimenting on Friday.“

In an unusual turn of events, Pirelli are being incredibly brave with their tyre choice, having allocated the C2 and C3 compounds for use all weekend but the C5 tyre (the softest in their range) for Qualifying! Robson is expecting this to play a massive role on car-setup.

“Adding to the complexity of the weekend is a courageous compound choice from Pirelli, with the C2 and C3 compounds being the Prime and Option as they were in Jeddah, but C5 being the Qualifying compound here in Melbourne. This may place significantly different demands on the car setup for qualifying and the race, but with no opportunity to change the setup on Saturday night, this compromise could be crucial”

Williams endured a horrific weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and a repeat simply can’t happen for the British team, Robson is hoping that it will be a cleaner weekend for the side.

“Following our difficult weekend in Jeddah, we are looking forward to a clean event here as we look to extract a little more potential from the FW44. The challenges here are different to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and so we will be open-minded and pragmatic with our approach.”