Melbourne: A cloudless day for Williams F1

The first day of testing for the Australian Grand Prix was contested in summer conditions, allowing Williams F1 Team to line up the laps on the Albert Park circuit with the FW36s of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. The Grove team was able to once again put the reliability of its single-seaters to the test, which passed the test with flying colors. “We had a quiet day completing our program”, explains Rod Nelson, the chief test engineer. “We carried out tests on the chassis and aerodynamics in the first session before focusing on the long runs and performance on the soft tires in the second. We are satisfied with the results obtained on the short and long relays and it was a constructive day. »

Valtteri Bottas was the fastest in the team by setting the eighth time, 1”295 behind the reference time set by Lewis Hamilton while completing 65 laps on this first day. “It was a good day for us. We didn't have the slightest problem with the car during the two sessions. We were able to complete our program by testing the settings on the short and long stints in order to collect a lot of data. We managed to improve the balance of the car between the two sessions, but there is still work to optimize the car's performance. »

Felipe Massa was also diligent, completing 50 laps in Melbourne and finishing with the 12th time of the day, 1” behind the day’s benchmark. “We were able to complete quite a few laps today, which was a chance to understand how the car behaves on this particular circuit. The car showed no problems, which is very positive given that reliability will be extremely important this weekend. We will have a lot of work this evening to improve the settings of the car, but it was still a positive day for us and we are happy to approach the weekend in this way. »

The final free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix will take place from 4 a.m. French time and can be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr. Discover the photos of the tests on this link.