Williams: the potential to do a little better

Williams is not expected at the forefront this season, both because of the potential of the FW41 and the youth of its crew, but the British team was nevertheless behind in qualifying for the Australian GP.

Lance stroll failed in Q2 in 14th position, but the Canadian will start from 13th place taking advantage of the penalty imposed on Valtteri Bottas. On the other hand, rookie Sergey Sirotkin lacked pace by only setting the 19th fastest time, only ahead of the Toro Rosso STR13 Pierre Gasly.

“It's a disappointing result because I think there was more to expect, both from the drivers and the car, recognized Paddy Lowe, Williams' technical director. Sergey and Lance made decent first attempts in Q1. Sergey was improving on his second attempt, but he made a mistake in the second sector and that cost him Q2. »

“Lance had a very good first lap in Q2. He attacked a little harder on his second attempt and he could have improved his benchmark if he hadn't made a mistake in the third corner. The positions could therefore have been better”, argued Paddy Lowe.

Despite this disappointment, Williams' technical director is showing patience in showcasing the potential of the team's package.

“That being said, they are two young drivers. One is a rookie and the other is only 19 and I think they are making good progress, underlined Paddy Lowe. It should be noted that the car is clearly not fast enough at the moment. We did not set times fast enough to reach Q3, which is our objective. The car will clearly need to be further developed in the weeks and months to come. »

But when it comes to the Australian GP, ​​Williams displays very modest pretensions.

“For the first race of the season, one of the main objectives will be to reach the finish with both cars and do our best to get into the points”, simply indicated the engineer.