Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi has issued a statement after confirming that following his retirement from last weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix he has received messages of support but all abusive messages on social media.
Latifi said:
Williams Racing’s Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson says that Nicholas Latifi drove a great race in the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday where the Canadian finished the race in 12th place and speaking following the action, Robson said;
The race today was even more busy than we had anticipated with the track proving difficult to clear once debris had been deposited. We were unfortunate when the early safety car became a red flag, but we had little to gain from staying out and potentially a lot to gain by pitting. The restarts were difficult with the tyres not quite at peak grip after a single lap to the grid behind the safety car.
George was very unfortunate to have his race ended when the Haas hit him; he could see a collision ahead and so didn’t approach the corner flat out, but the Haas behind was unsighted, and the collision was terminal. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and the car doesn’t seem too badly damaged.
Nicholas drove a very strong race, stayed out of trouble and showed good pace, matching Giovinazzi. Knowing that it would likely be a battle of attrition, he handled the race very well, benefited from incidents ahead and took excellent care of the car and tyres during the numerous VSC periods. Unfortunately, today, it wasn’t enough to score any points. However, Alfa Romeo were only able to score two points and so we head to Abu Dhabi with a ten-point lead to defend.
Next week is set to be a spectacular end to the season with an incredible battle at the front. The recent changes to the Yas Marina circuit will add to the challenge for all the teams and we are looking forward to testing the car and drivers on this faster, more flowing version of this well-known track.
Before the race started, the entire Formula One grid came together to remember team founder and former Team Principal Sir Frank Williams who passed away last Sunday.
Nicholas Latifi commented following the race saying:
Today was a very tough race, both physically and mentally. Trying to keep the rhythm and the tyre temperature through the many restarts and safety cars is always challenging, but I gave it everything I had and I was fortunate not to get caught in the collision ahead of me during the second start. It was a good race to learn from as we head into our final event of the season in Abu Dhabi next week
George Russell was forced to retire from the race following contact with the Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin and speaking following the race he said:
I came through the small kink of turn three and there were cars everywhere. I hit the brakes to slow down and unfortunately, I got hit from behind, was up in the air and that was our day over. It’s a shame but with such a narrow track that is so fast, and with the size of these cars, an accident is almost inevitable.
Heading to Abu Dhabi, we need to find a bit more speed from the car so we can be battling a little higher up the field. It’s my last race with Williams next week and I want to finish on a high.
Williams Racing had a solid qualifying for Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah circuit where George Russell will start the race from 14th place with a time of 01:29.054s and speaking following the action he said:
I was really happy with my lap in Q1 and was pleased to get through to Q2. We ran the medium tyre for the first time since FP1 in Q2 and again, I was pretty happy with my first lap but couldn’t improve on my second effort, running slightly wide in the middle sector. I am relatively satisfied with P14, but we are a bit further behind Alfa Romeo than we would want to be. It is tricky out there and getting the tyres in the right window is difficult, but I do believe that is about where our car is at the moment.
I think overtaking is going to be difficult in the Grand Prix but we will have to see on Sunday. Nobody knows how the tyres are going to react and the grip levels are pretty high. You can push relatively hard which is quite fatiguing but what we want to see in F1. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.
Nicholas Latifi starts the race from 16th place and speaking after setting a fastest time of 01:29.177s he said:
We were aiming for Q2 today and it looked possible, but unfortunately, I didn’t get my second lap on the first set of tyres in, and then ran wide in Turn four which set me back a lap. I know I could have done a better job and, with an extra lap we could have found that time, but I only have myself to blame for that, so it is a bit disappointing.
Tomorrow will be quite challenging for everyone, both physically and mentally, with the high temperature and high-speed nature of the circuit. It has been a fun track to drive so far though, so I am looking forward to the challenge.
Head of Vehicle Performance with Williams Racing Dave Robson said:
Today was one of the busiest Saturdays we have seen for a while with most cars spending a large proportion of the time in each qualifying session on track. Throughout the session, the required tyre preparation varied and was difficult to predict. Furthermore, the Soft and Medium compounds offered viable alternatives for most drivers.
Nicholas was again just short of qualifying for Q2, finishing only just behind Alonso having made a mistake on his final timed lap of the first run, which hurt his momentum through the session. George had a good session and qualified for Q2, close to both Alfa Romeos. We opted to complete a run on the Soft compound at the beginning of Q2 to get a time on the board and to see how it compared to those who ran the Medium. We then switched to the Medium, aiming to complete a three timed lap run. Unfortunately, having not run the Medium since FP1, we didn’t quite get the balance right and George was unable to complete his final timed lap, which was a shame as we may have been able to challenge the three cars ahead.
The race tomorrow is going to be long with opportunities to make progress. Both drivers have showed good high fuel pace throughout the weekend and there is no reason to think that we can’t race the cars around us.
Williams Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson says that it is too early for the team to assess where the team is going into this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Speaking following the action he said:
It’s still too early in the weekend to assess exactly how we are doing, but we feel we’ve had a decent day. The track has lived up to expectation and is fast and challenging. Unfortunately, there were some different tyre strategies amongst drivers today, which meant that there was heavy traffic at times, and therefore completing representative laps wasn’t always easy. However, we have made some good progress and can see opportunity for further improvement overnight. With all the sessions being late in the day, FP3 should be a useful session for working on the car set-up ahead of Qualifying.
It will be interesting to see how easy overtaking is on Sunday and how this will play into people’s view on strategy. The track is already in a good state and the tyres are working well, which should make for an interesting weekend.
George Russell ended the day in 17th place overall and speaking following the action he said:
It was very fun out there today. It is an incredibly fast track and it punishes you heavily if you make a mistake. You must be very precise with where you are positioning the car and tomorrow in Qualifying it will be very tricky. It will require lots of commitment on those one or two flying laps, particularly through the high-speed corners, so I am excited for that as I am sure it will be very exhilarating. The car was feeling nice to drive today and it was quite close in the midfield with other teams such as Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo. I think a lot of people were struggling to get the tyres working on the first timed lap, particularly on the soft Pirelli compound, as preparation doesn’t seem so straightforward. If you get the tyres in the right window, I think there will be plenty of opportunity so we will be putting a lot of emphasis on trying to get that right overnight.
Nicholas Latifi ended the day in 19th place and speaking following the action he said:
It is always nice to discover a new track, especially when it is a street circuit as you have to gauge the risk versus reward and find your marks, which means you really have to build it up lap-by-lap. There are some things to improve and clean up overnight, on both the driving side and with the car, to give me a bit more confidence heading into Qualifying tomorrow. Overall, however, we had two good sessions today and I think we can make some good steps for the race on Sunday.
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