Albon and Latifi completed a shakedown in the Williams FW44 on Tuesday in rainy conditions at the Silverstone circuit, while their team presented a new livery for the 2022 season.
And although the regulations restrict such tests to 100 kilometers in total, and the day was affected by rain, both drivers admit that concerns that visibility with the new 18-inch wheels and wind deflectors have been realized. tires will be more limited.
Nicholas Latifi explained: “Visibility is definitely worse in some corners. I guess it depends on the type of corner, how close you get to the corner and where you look.”
“I think it’s something that everyone has to get used to. But clearly there are cases where you see less of it.”
Alexander Albon acknowledged that racing on an open track like Silverstone was not a problem, but believes street circuits could be more difficult.
“Today we had bad conditions, with a dark, gloomy and wet day at Silverstone, but it wasn’t too bad,” he said.
“I think we are going to have more problems when we go to street circuits. When we get to Monaco, Baku and Jeddah… those will be the most difficult.”
“On the open circuits, you can see a long way ahead, but the tire’s blind spots and all the deflectors take away a lot of that immediate vision when you’re looking into the corner.
“So what you end up doing is you end up looking around the curve.”
“However, on a street circuit, obviously going over a wall, there’s just more wall, so you can’t see much around. I think that’s going to be the most difficult.”
“And also driving fighting for position is going to be a little more complicated in terms of seeing where you are, where the front wing is and where your tires are. That can be a little more complicated.”
Although the shakedown and conditions didn’t allow either of the two Williams drivers to understand much about the new 2022 F1 cars, Latifi did suggest that he could already feel the sheer weight of these cars.
“It was very difficult to get a proper feel for the car, but it certainly feels very different to last year,” he said. “It looks like you’re driving a heavier car.”
“But other than that, I wasn’t close to the limits. We’re just making sure everything works, the seat is comfortable and any little adjustments you want to make.”
“So beyond that, I didn’t dwell too much on anything else I felt.”
All the photos of Williams’ new car
Photo by: Williams
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Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
