Dave Robson has been encouraged by the performance of Williams Racing’s FW44 across the past two race weekends in Great Britain and Austria in the hands of Alexander Albon, so he is pleased the upgrades used by the Thai driver in those events will now also be used by his team-mate Nicholas Latifi.
Latifi has been using the older spec car while Albon had the updates, but the Canadian will now be given a level playing field against his team-mate for the first time this weekend at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France, much to the delight of Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance.
“Having introduced some new parts to Alex’s car over the last couple of races, we are now in a position where both cars can run with the upgrades,” said Robson. “Although the weather in Silverstone, and the Sprint format in Austria were not ideal for testing, we have seen enough encouraging feedback to be confident that we have taken a step forward.
“With the weather likely to be warm, dry and stable this weekend, we’ll look to use Friday’s running to get Nicky up to speed with the new parts and also to continue to understand how best to exploit the performance of the new package.”
As well as getting the best out of the updates, Robson says it will be key to get on top of Pirelli’s tyres in France, with the sole tyre manufacturer of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship bringing the three tyres in the middle of their range for the event.
“For this event, Pirelli have brought the middle of their compound range, a combination that we used frequently at the start of the season, most recently in Miami,” Robson added. “The next two races will also use these compounds and so it is important that we reacquaint ourselves with this combination quickly.
“The circuit was resurfaced ahead of last year’s event and, in damp conditions, led to some tyre graining. We will need to see exactly how the surface has aged in the last 12 months, but this process and the better weather forecast for this year should mean that graining is much less of an issue.
“Instead, the high track temperatures and high circuit energy is likely to lead to tyre overheating, which will need to be managed during the race.”
Robson says the back-to-back nature of this part of the season makes for a busy period for everyone within Williams, but they have been up to the task, particularly when it comes to the increased development of the FW44 and the challenges that presents.
“This time of the season – the second consecutive back-to-back pair of races – is a very busy period of the year for everyone,” he said.
“The introduction of a major upgrade has challenged the whole team, but this challenge has been met with enthusiasm and professionalism and, as a result, we head into the final races before the summer shutdown in a good position and ready to push on into the second half of the season.”