Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images
There is confidence in the air around Williams after a strong Friday at the British Grand Prix
With a number of Formula 1 teams that consider Great Britain home, one of the major storylines heading into the British Grand Prix was whether one of the teams that calls Silverstone their home base would deliver a surprise for the field.
Of course, that led many to point to McLaren, Mercedes, or Aston Martin. But is the answer actually Williams?
After Friday’s dual practice sessions, it looks like it might be.
Alex Albon placed third in the first practice session of the weekend, behind the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez. In the later session of the day, but Williams drivers were in the top five, with Albon in P3, and rookie Logan Sargeant in P5.
It was an extremely strong performance, one that has the team thinking big things are possible over the weekend.
“Obviously a very good day today, said Albon in the team’s post-practice report. “I think we need to stay true to ourselves as we don’t know what everyone else is doing.”
“Looking at the timesheets you can’t not be happy, but I think it’s better to just focus on how we can continue to improve, as there’s still more to look at,” added Albon. “Let’s also hope tomorrow stays dry.”
His rookie teammate shared Albon’s enthusiasm.
“It was a decent Friday in Silverstone,” said Sargeant. “Despite being quite tricky with high temperatures and high winds, making it very unpredictable throughout the lap.
“We’ve done a good job to get on top of it, however, there are still some improvements to make ahead of tomorrow,” added the Williams rookie. “Either way, it was a great day driving this amazing track and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Dave Robson, the team’s Head of Vehicle Development. shared post-practice that the team has brought some upgrades to Silverstone, but also shared the excitement of his drivers. “We got through a good amount of work in FP1 with both drivers completing their programmes, including a first look at some new aerodynamic items, said Robson. “Alex ran a new front wing, which is working well; he will keep this for the rest of the weekend.”
“Meanwhile, Logan looked at a new rear wing, which will race later in the season. Despite the distraction of doing these tests, both drivers were still able to get a good look at the track and the conditions,” he added. “FP2 was a normal race weekend session and both drivers were able to set good lap times at low and high fuel despite the windy conditions.”
As for the upgrades that the team has made to the FW45 in recent weeks, Robson outlined how Silverston was a great test to confirm if the team was moving in the right direction.
“This is the first time that we have seen the upgrade package, which we introduced in Canada, run on a circuit as demanding and varied as Silverstone,” he stated. “This has enabled us to collect a lot more data than was possible in Canada and Austria and will help us understand if the development direction was correct.”
“Alex and Logan were very strong today and set fast laps in tricky conditions, however, the conditions are likely to vary over the next couple of days and we still have a lot of work to do to secure a good result,” added Robson. “We’ll focus on the things we can influence and try to maintain the good momentum into tomorrow.”
Also on Friday Team Principal James Vowles met with the media. During his press conference session, the team boss expanded on the upgrades, and their potential for a shock result this weekend.
“I think we look strong, but we were more focused on Qualifying than others. Some teams didn’t even run the soft tyre, we ran it quite late on. So, we’ll keep our feet on the ground. But what I can say is from Montréal onwards, we put an update on the car that allows us, if we get everything right, to score a point,” Vowles outlined. “We didn’t get everything right in Austria. That’s the reality behind it. But we have the opportunity to be there or thereabouts. And I think the same applies to this weekend. I think what you’re seeing from the outset, it’s a positive start. But to give you an idea, Logan’s lap wasn’t bad at all, just very early on and fell back as the track improvement ramped up, and other people did their laps and things.”
“The main thing is we’re learning with the package we’ve got and really just doing the best we can by moving forward relative to a highly competitive group. To Zak’s point, I’d say there’s almost five fast teams now,” added Vowles. “The McLaren is pushing in and around there. What they did in Austria was impressive. But four, sadly here with my colleague, four really strong teams and that just means there’s just two places at the end of the top 10 that we’re fighting for at the moment.”
Still, this pair of photographs shared on social media by F1 outlines what a difference a year makes. On the top you have Albon and Nicholas Latifi at Silverstone last year during FP2, and on the bottom you see their current duo of Albon and Sargeant:
Pictures are certainly worth a thousand words.
