More than 100,000 fans attended Albert Park for the two first practice sessions of the year. Despite some early challenges with the setup and the tyres, Atlassian Williams Racing, averaged 100 laps completes between Carlos and Alex, which could be defined as a pretty productive opening day.
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A Strong Start in FP1
As soon as they left the garages, the two cars showed their competitiveness. Carlos stormed to P2 in FP1 with a 1:17.401, making him less than two-tenths behind Norris who finished at the top. On the other hand Alex slotted into P6 with a 1:17.713. Despite 2 red flags, one due to gravel on the track and the other due to Oliver Bearman running off the track, the team remained focused and at full momentum.
“Definitely a positive Friday for us, with FP1 quite strong,”
Carlos Sainz reflected.
For Alex, however, the session wasn’t entirely an easy ride.
“We had an issue with the brakes in FP1, but we were able to fix that after the session and settle into it more,”
Mixed Feelings After Australian GP FP Williams
This second test session was devoted to testing different tyres and fine-tuning the set-up. But despite an excellent first session, the second was a little more tricky. Both Carlos and Alex set an identical time of 1:17.302, respectively finishing in 11th and 12th place. The major challenge of FP2 was the soft tyres.
“FP2, we didn’t manage to find performance on the Soft tyre, so we need to look into this ahead of Qualifying tomorrow”
Alex echoed the same troubles:
“By the end of FP2 I was in a fairly good place, but we lost performance to our rivals on the Soft tyre, so we need to understand why as it doesn’t feel right and it’s important to get on top of that ahead of Qualifying. On the Mediums, I feel we would comfortably be in Q3, but the Softs have changed a bit from last year, and we’re still trying to understand them.”
Despite the struggles on the softer compound, the team is satisfied with their long-run pace.
“The race pace is not horrendous,” Alex added. “But, again, we still want a little bit more from it.”
Focus Turns to Qualifying
The team now knows what they need to work on, and that is extracting performance from the soft tires. With such a competitive car in hand, they need to ensure both drivers have the best possible performance in Qualifying.
“Directionally, I think we know where to go,” Alex said. “But we’re gonna need to dig deeper and figure out how to get these Softs to work for Qualifying.”
Carlos agreed, knowing that the midfield positions are going to be a tight battle, the execution will be everything:
“The field is extremely close, with various teams doing some very fast laps, so tomorrow will be all about putting together a clean session and seeing where that takes us.”
Williams heads into the weekend with some confidence but still with a few issues to resolve, their attention is now turned to Saturday’s qualifying session, where they will hope for a strong result.
Australian GP FP Williams Featured Image courtesy of Williams Racing Content Pool
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