So far as qualifying periods go, Saturday’s efficiency from the workforce at Williams was a strong effort. Each Logan Sargeant and Alexander Albon superior into Q2, and whereas they might not transfer on from there the duo is ready to begin in P14 and P13 respectively, giving the workforce an opportunity at transferring into the factors on Sunday.
Nonetheless, each drivers imagine Saturday may have been higher.
Each Albon and Sargeant famous that the site visitors on the observe posed a major downside, with Sargeant specifically venting his frustrations over the radio as his qualifying session got here to an in depth. Whereas the American driver had calmed considerably when he provided his evaluation of the session, you possibly can nonetheless hear the frustration in his phrases.
“It was an eventful Qualifying. I used to be actually proud of the primary lap I did when it was spitting a little bit of rain. I wasn’t so proud of my mistake on the second lap, and I have to say a giant due to the workforce for doing an amazing job to get the automobile rotated to return out once more,” mentioned Sargeant.
“We had much more tempo in it in Q2, however I had soiled air in each sector with folks staying in entrance of you longer than they should and placing soiled air in your entrance wing,” added the American driver. “There are tenths in that round this observe so it’s excessively detrimental right here, particularly with the overheating you get. I’m dissatisfied for myself and for the workforce as I do know we had much more in it at the moment, however we’ll transfer on and struggle tomorrow.”
Sargeant referenced a spin in Q1 that might have been pricey, however the workforce within the storage did a incredible job at getting his FW46 able to proceed.
On the opposite aspect of the storage, Albon additionally famous a number of the site visitors points, and the “battle for clear air” all of the drivers confronted on Saturday.
“There was positively extra in it at the moment; I obtained caught in soiled air for many of Q2 and as I used to be beginning my lap, others had been on their outlaps, so it was troublesome with the site visitors. You want every part to align round right here, and we didn’t get essentially the most out of it at the moment, so it’s irritating. It’s going to be an extended race tomorrow with the degradation being fairly excessive as we’ve seen from the F2 and F3 races, so there will probably be a variety of pit stops and simply the battle for clear air which is important round this circuit,” described Albon. “It’s irritating to complete the day like this however we’ll work with what we’ve obtained tomorrow.”
Williams Sporting Director Sven Smeets praised each drivers for his or her work, noting that the workforce must be within the struggle on Sunday.
“The climate made Qualifying a bit extra thrilling than what many anticipated at the moment. Gentle rain on and off made it laborious to learn the observe circumstances, however the most effective moments had been most likely at the beginning and finish of Q1. Logan’s first timed lap was mega, and this might be sufficient to maneuver into Q2 whereas Alex made it via with an amazing lap proper on the finish,” mentioned Smeets. “Sadly, in Q2 we didn’t get all of it proper for the push lap, discovering an excessive amount of site visitors across the observe however each vehicles are in a superb place to struggle for factors tomorrow. Tyre administration, pitstops and discovering clear air will probably be essential tomorrow because the temperatures ought to decide up once more.”
For the time being Williams sits ninth within the System 1 Constructors’ Championship standings with 4 factors, 5 factors behind eighth-place Alpine.
Can they discover a strategy to chip into that lead tomorrow?
