George Russell much more confident with the Williams FW43

Compared to 2019, Williams Racing made a successful 2020 debut in F1. Not that the FW43 is now an absolute weapon, but the English team has already taken the right path for this new season by starting the Barcelona runs on time, which had not been the case twelve months ago.

Another reason for satisfaction for the Grove clan, the FW43 allows us to move forward more calmly in the progress table set by the engineers, due to a much better finish at this stage of the year compared to 2019.

“The build quality of the car is so much better compared to last year, analyzes George Russell, first on track for Williams this morning in Catalonia. The parts fit correctly and the car looks better from a design point of view, so I think overall it was a very positive morning.

The handling of the car is noticeably better. From the first lap, I had the confidence to push the car whereas last year, it was scary to drive in the first few laps and try to build confidence.

The car is definitely an improvement over last year. It's hard to get a real reading this far, but from the inside it's nice to drive.

Obviously lap times are the important thing and we'll only know by the end of next week the real picture. But we are significantly faster this time than in 2019 because the car was in pieces. »

Unsavory words regarding the work accomplished by Grove in 2019, but which clearly reflect the difficulties that Frank Williams' training had to face twelve months ago. With its share of hard blows both for the image of the team and for the morale of the troops.

Williams did not wait a single minute this morning to be able to accumulate the maximum number of kilometers, so precious this year with the reduction of winter testing to six days compared to eight last year. And thus achieve a sort of redemption in the face of the situation of 2019.

“It was important for all of us and for everyone who worked day and night at the factory to see their car come out first, believes the Briton, protected by Mercedes.

After last year's struggles, the return to Grove had been incredibly difficult last year as they worked their tails off trying to get things ready by working twice as hard. So this was a relief for everyone and now we can start moving forward with our testing program. »