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In the years leading up to 2022
the sight of a Williams Racing car scoring points was such that it was seen
as something extraordinary in terms of the teams achievements but now in
2022 with five races of the season completed we have seen the team secure
points scoring results in two of them. I had previously commented on how I
felt that the team had achieved their first major milestone of securing
their first points in Australia.
But as we look at the team prior to the next race in Spain how do we view
this accomplishment. Is it the first steps in a return of the team to being
a success as it has being in the past or is it a bit of a false dawn for the
team, or somewhere in between.
As a fan as every race and every session passed I would sit back with an
feeling of anticipation that we would see a consistent improvement in
performance from the team. But in the five races that I have followed this
season it has being such a mixed series of performances not only in terms
of the 2022 FW44 but across the teams drivers themselves.
As a general summary of the season so far for Williams it has been very much
a mix of performances throughout the practice and qualifying sessions and the
same in general could be said of the races.
The general theme has to be one of difficult practice and qualifying
sessions with in most cases both team drivers starting from the rear of the
field only to see a split in the performances across the drivers with Albon,
the driver who has scored both points for the team, being markedly better
than team-mate Latifi come the race.
Even in the recent Miami Grand Prix we were again faced with the drivers
starting from the rear of the field.
But the most notable positive to come from the races so far has to be be the
overall impressive performances in the race in particular from Albon. This
really has shown that the 2022 FW44 even though still far from being a
consistently quick midfield car still has the pace to fight amongst these
other cars and on its day the FW44 certainly can match it with the likes of
Aston Martin, McLaren and even Alpine.
As Albon would describe it he feels that the Williams team is "outdoing"
their rivals. In some respects in the races I would have to agree. But for
me there is still an element of uncertainty as to how this will go over the
course of the season.
In the Miami race we had the sight of a Williams car in the top ten in two
of the practice sessions which was somewhat of an unusual event up till this
point. But again the issue of poor qualifying results came back seeing Albon
start from 18th in the Miami race only to use the pace we had seen in the
practice sessions to work his way forwards during the race to finish 10th,
even though he was ultimately awarded ninth. This was his second points
scoring result of the season after Australia.
Albon spoke of his results in Miami by saying: “We were in the top 10 for
two out of three practice sessions and we were genuinely there – it wasn’t
low fuel or anything like that.
“Of course, we lucked into a few collisions with the cars in front but we
were right behind them and catching as well. It was a strong weekend for us.
Albon added: "Yes. I feel like, you can say luck but firstly we were
fighting George in the beginning of the race; we actually overtook him at
one point.
"We then caught Daniel in the race, and we were catching the whole pack in
front of us, so I don't even call it luck."
"I think we were just, again, optimistic on strategy; we stayed out where
everyone else pitted, and we took our chances as we always keep doing, and
that's what's putting us in these situations where we're nipping at the
points."
Albon certainly feels that for him at least the team has achieved great
performance on race days but he has added that the team still has to find a
solution to their qualifying issues. But he is optimistic that they will get
on top of this.
"I think if we optimise our package, we will get there." Albon said.
"But it's the same as everyone. I just think also, in some respects, we are
doing a really good job in the races, and I feel like we are outdoing other
people on tyres and strategy, and also on how we work the tyres.
"Again, that C2, I did my best lap on the last lap. There's something about
that tyre that we love!"
Albon added: “The anomaly is
qualifying and we need to understand where to get the performance back
because we got it in Bahrain and we just lost our footing a
little bit."
“We had the brake issue in Imola, fuel issue in Melbourne and here we just
couldn’t switch the tyres on. So it’s looking very positive.”
“We can say ‘we should be here,
we should be there’ but at the minute we’re not getting into Q2. So until we
get into Q2, we can say that’s where our car is."
So far the team has yet to be
seen brining any significant updates to the FW44 apart from those which are
track specific. It would seem that the team is being very careful as to when
to use part of their budget cap to update the FW44 preferring it would seem
to develop an more accurate understanding of the car. But at some stage the
team if they want to make sure they don't get left behind will have to
implementing upgrades to the FW44. Time will tell on this one and whether of
not the updates prove to be successful.
So far in my comments the
focus of them has been in regard to the achievements of Albon in terms of
the teams overall improvement in performances. But the team does have
another driver Nicholas Latifi who being blunt has struggled with the new
2022 cars and really has failed to achieve any really note worthy results.
In several races he has come under a lot of criticism for crashing his car.
Despite the fact that Nicholas
is aware of his issues and is trying to move forward on them there is still
a big question mark hanging over him maybe not for the rest of the 2022
season as he appears to be well supported by the team but for the 2023
season.
So as we prepare for the Spanish
Grand Prix weekend the position of the Williams Racing Team certainly has to
be one of achieving some note worthy successes but there is still far more
work to be done to make sure the issues in regard to qualifying and the
disparity between the drivers are addressed. But for me the big positive has
to be that for the first time the team seems to be in a position where they
can move forward where as in previous seasons it was very much the case of
been stuck at the back with no real chance of moving from that position.
The FW44 is still far from being amongst the overall quickest cars but so
far the results have shown that they are making progress and that one can
feel confident that they will get on top of their issues and continue to
push forward. |
