Williams rookie George Russell says the team can look to Force India’s 2015 season as inspiration, in the wake of its dismal showing in the opening 2019 Formula 1 test.
Williams’ FW42 was not ready until Wednesday afternoon – the third of four days of running at Barcelona – leaving the team firmly behind its opponents.
Russell and Robert Kubica amassed a combined 88 laps, significantly down on their rivals, with their best lap times substantially adrift of the pack, as Williams focused on aero correlation.
Force India – now Racing Point – suffered delays with its 2015 car and had to run an old package, limiting the time with its new car, but went on to finish fifth in the championship.
“I think even myself, until you are involved in a Formula 1 team, you don’t understand how much work goes on just to get a Formula 1 car on the track,” he said.
“I went around the factory and met everyone in January and I was amazed, despite being in a Formula 1 team [at Mercedes] for two years, I was still amazed about how much effort goes in to make the simplest of parts.
“We’ve seen it before, Force India missed the whole of 2015 test, I want to say, and they still finished fifth in the championship.
“You don’t get points for testing so who knows what will happen.
“It has been quite annoying watching everyone on track and obviously as a driver you just want to get out there.
“It has passed quite quickly because I have understood how much work has been going on for all the people building this car.
“It hasn’t made me frustrated, I understand that we haven’t got in this situation on purpose, everybody is obsessed about it and they are working their socks off to make it right.
“That was refreshing for me. It made me quite proud of the guys and how much they are working. It is a privilege to be part of this team.”
Russell stressed that he has “full faith” in Williams to turn around its current predicament.
“At this stage, we’ve been so limited for mileage we have no idea what state the car is going to be in performance-wise,” he said.
“Obviously we are behind the others in terms of experience but I’ve got full faith in the guys to do the job.”
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