Bahrain GP: Difficult race for Williams Racing

Race Notes
• Alex Albon finished 13th and Nicholas Latifi 16th in the Bahrain Grand Prix
• Alex started the race 14th and Nicholas 20th, both on the soft Pirelli tyres
• Alex ran a three-stop race, taking a new set of medium tyres on laps 13 and 35. He made his final stop under the Safety Car, switching to the soft compound on lap 46.
• Nicholas also pitted three times, initially boxing on lap 14 for the soft compound, before stopping for the medium tyre on lap 32. Under the Safety Car he boxed on lap 45, taking a new set of soft Pirelli tyres.

Nicholas Latifi:
"It was a tricky day and it’s clear we’re not starting off as strong as we would have liked. We’ve been lacking pace, struggling with overall grip, balance and tyre degradation, so we need to work out how we extract more out of the package we have now and have a real push to react as soon as possible to bring some more speed to the car. Jeddah will be a different kind of track and one that should suit us a bit better, but we’re still going to be going there with a similar package. I’m sure we’ll be able to optimise it more, knowing what we’ve learnt here, but I suspect it will still be tough. It’s a 23 race season though, so there’s plenty of time to claw things back."

Alex Albon:
"My first Formula One race with Williams went pretty well; it felt like we did a good job and really maximised what we had. I had a good start and managed to make up a few positions, so I was pushing hard. Inevitably, a few faster cars overtook and we slipped back down a couple of places, but it’s a step forward considering the struggles we had last week. We knew it was going to be a difficult weekend, so to come out P13 with no reliability issues is something we should be pleased with."

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"It has been a tough evening in Bahrain, but we got both cars to the end, and at times showed some reasonable pace. Alex made a good start and made some places early in the race. Unfortunately, today we didn’t have the pace to hold on. However, we were able to race competitively with both the McLarens and the Aston Martins, which was an improvement from what we saw at the test last week.

Nicholas raced hard as he always does but struggled to find a sustainable pace without the tyre degradation becoming unmanageable. Alex was calm and collected throughout the race and he has had an excellent start to his Williams career. Qualifying and racing with a new team is never straightforward as there are so many procedures to learn and relationships to form. However, after solid simulator and winter testing programmes, he was able to acquit himself very well all weekend. There is more to come from the drivers and the car over the coming weeks, but this was a solid start for the whole team, and we are now looking forward to the very different challenges posed by Jeddah Corniche Circuit."

Track: Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain
Lap Length: 5.412 km

Weather: Warm & dry conditions
Temperature: Air: 22-24°C Track: 26-29°C

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