Early end of day for Williams

For his debut with the news Williams FW40, the rookie Lance stroll will not make it to the end of his day of driving today in Barcelona in Catalonia. The Canadian, recruited by Grove for this 2017 season after a European championship title in F3 in 2016, made a mistake this morning, causing damage which required a special procedure for the British team.

“Even if the accident was not serious, we unfortunately had some damage, which we are in the process of repairing, said Rob Smedley, Williams' performance manager.

We will need to send composite parts to the factory, which will be back at some point tomorrow. We are doing our best to resume testing as soon as possible tomorrow. We will be able to catch up with the program in the coming days. »

Despite this setback and only twelve laps on the clock, Lance Stroll was able, as he indicated, to “break the ice” and finally start with the new car Williams, who had carried out an intense program of private tests. "It's still early and I've only done a handful of laps, confesses Stroll.

I'm starting with the FW40, and there's still a lot of time ahead of us. It felt good to finally get behind the wheel just to get the feel. Like I said, it's still early, so I need to drive a lot more before I know exactly where I am and where the car is. I'll have a better picture once we have more rounds accumulated. »