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The opening nine races of the
2022 Formula One season has seen the Williams Racing Team only come away
with just three points with their nearest rival now twelve points ahead.
These opening races have had their encouraging moments but overall they have
not been easy events for Williams.
Williams has struggled so far this season and has frequently had the slowest
package, particularly on single-lap pace, which has seen both drivers having
to cope with the difficulties of starting races from the rear of the grid.
Both team drivers Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi have had reason to raise
concerns over the performance of the 2022 FW44, with Nicholas been very
critical of the situation regarding his inability to achieve performances
saying that the FW44 simply lacked pace.
At the recent Canadian Grand Prix Nicholas would say: “In terms of the
actual on-track stuff, there was nothing really enjoyable about the race. We
were just lacking a lot of pace. We have to try and understand why, because
at the moment there’s no answers.
“Low fuel, high fuel, the pace is just not there, so we have two weeks now
to try and do a bit of analysis because it’s not just this race, it’s even
from the previous ones. There’s something not quite right there. We’ll see
what we can find.”
For Alex Albon his overall pace in the FW44 has been far better having
scored the teams points so far. But even he is hopeful that the team can
make improvements when they make further upgrades to their car. It is
believed that the team will be bringing a major upgrade cover most areas of
the car for the home race of the team the British Grand Prix.
Speaking of his Canadian weekend Alex said: "Going into this weekend, we
knew this track was going to be difficult and despite our good qualifying,
in the first three-four laps I could tell it was going to be a struggle."
"I think P13 was all we could have achieved today so at face value; I am
quite happy with it.
"Going into the next stint of races, hopefully we can make these upgrades
and continue to improve on this."
Alex added: “Everyone’s been upgrading and we haven’t had a major upgrade in
a while now.”
“Balance-wise we have weaknesses in the car, which aren’t so clear to be
able to fix with what we’ve got right now.
“With updates most things are predominantly down to the through corner
characteristics of the car, hopefully that’ll put it in a better window.
“It does make things tricky, depending on the circuits, here [in Montreal]
you have high-speed chicanes and very tight corners.
“It’s hard for us to find a good compromise through the lap, so it
escalates.”
In regard to the situation with the FW44 Dave Robson would add: "We needed a
little more basic car pace to be able to really race for points and everyone
in Grove is working very hard to deliver that to the track as soon as
possible."
With the British Grand Prix just a week away the arrival of this major
upgrade at Williams will be confirmed quite soon. The big question will be
whether this will see a step forward for the team and in turn allow both
Alex and Nicholas to get more from the FW44. As their competition also goes
through the process of bringing upgrades to their cars it will be essential
for the Williams team to make a step forward or else it will get left
further and further behind as the season progresses. |
