George Russell, Williams, Baku City Circuit, 2019

Williams bringing “exciting” upgrade package for Spanish Grand Prix

2019 Spanish Grand Prix

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George Russell hopes Williams’s upgrade package for the Spanish Grand Prix will help the struggling team “turn our season around”.

Williams started the season on the back foot after its car arrived late for pre-season testing at the circuit three months ago. It suffered a further setback at the last race in Baku, when Russell’s original chassis was badly damaged by a drain cover.

However the rookie is hopeful the team’s new parts for this weekend’s race will held it reduce the gap to the nine other teams.

“We have got some exciting items to test in Barcelona that we hope will guide us in the right direction for the remainder of the season,” he said. “We hope they will be positive steps, to try and turn our season around.”

Williams senior race engineer Dave Robson said the Baku drama prevented it from testing the upgrade sooner.

“With our Friday running in Baku being heavily curtailed, we have a range of test items for consideration on Friday.

“However, as the race is immediately followed by a two-day test, we can concentrate on the short-term items on Friday before switching focus to the longer-term learning during the test.”

Williams’s official reserve driver Nicholas Latifi will drive on both days of the post-race test.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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25 comments on “Williams bringing “exciting” upgrade package for Spanish Grand Prix”

  1. At this point the only exciting upgrade would be the return of the six wheeler.

    1. Agreed.
      This “single split wing element with a 1 degree curve difference” or “there are now 76 mini directional vanes instead of the 74 we had before on the bargeboards” is certainly not wow in any language.

  2. Good news, better late than never.

  3. After last weekend they have developed a “Manhole Cover Launching System” that both fires their driver up to racing speed and targets the car behind!

    Robert has been asked not to aim it at George :)

  4. For their sake it better be an incredible upgrade. I don’t know how many love or like Williams, but it is undeniable that they, along with Ferrari and McLaren, are one of F1’s legendary teams. It would be a shame for them to die out, especially like this, with a whimper..

    1. I always have a soft spot for teams that have to fight for their existence . I.e. Minardi, Virgin/Marussia/Manor and as it looks.. Williams. Lets hope they recover on time.
      Once the top of Formula1 and now the bottom. But still fighting!

    2. Its not a whimper. they were 5th in WCC recently, its limbs being torn from bodies, its brutal and excruciating to watch,

    3. One thing that is surprising, @fw11b and @greg-c, is that Williams has been doing fine in terms of finance due to increasing profits even though they are going backwards in F1!
      So they seem to be OK but of course they cannot continue performing this poorly for very long as their revenue will eventually take a big hit…

  5. This upgrade will make the car go faster right? Just making sure that the design team got the memo saying you gotta take less time to get around the track not more lol. No I really hope this helps a lot but even if they gain 2 secs of pace they will still be slower then the other teams. This is a losing battle. They need to just test every week by bringing new parts and just work on next year. Who cares about any penalties or anything just go for it

    1. Pedro Andrade
      7th May 2019, 20:20

      As baffling as it sounds, that memo really needs to get across. Their car is slower than the 2018 car, which in turn was slower than the 2017 car! All this while the other teams move forward.

    2. :-D Sadly, while chuckling at that, I can’t help but feel that this advice IS something Williams needs to hear @racerdude7730!

  6. Uh-oh. They might struggle to make the 107% time from now-on.

  7. Steveetienne
    7th May 2019, 20:10

    Is it a box of cream cakes?

  8. “Williams bringing “exciting” upgrade package for Spanish Grand Prix” – they’re going to install a race engine instead of the spare one from postman pats van

    1. Im pretty sure the engine installed is a genuine race engine, FFS its a Mercedes power plant so I’m only guessing but i think its not short of power , If Red Bull can make a top 3 of a Honda then I think we know where the deficiencies lie

      1. Steveetienne
        8th May 2019, 7:13

        Clearly he was joking.

  9. Has anybody heard what happened to Paddy Lowe ‘s leave?

    The updates wont be under his direction though so who are they going to blame next if they dont work?

    1. Nobody. They will go back to the other statement from last week, that they have just cleared the backlog from late testing and now can focus on development….

    2. I was thinking the same thing. What a truly humiliating exit. I always got the impression he was riding the coat tails of superior technical staff under him at McLaren and Mercedes and this whole situation seems to add weight to that theory.

  10. There were post race test at Baku?

  11. What is the post race test they mentioned? In Baku?

  12. Let’s hope there’s an improvement. However it would have to be something pretty amazing to make the sort of difference they need to just close the gap to the next car up the road.

    Developments that gain a second or more are pretty rare.

  13. They track record of official statements vs reality is same as time gap to leaders :)

  14. Truly impressed with George Russel’s positivity this season. He genuinely seems to be grateful just to be in F1 which is how it should be. Contrast that with the entitled moaning, underperforming brat Lance Stroll and you have clear cut the case against pay drivers in a nutshell.

  15. I have an inkling that the package is a new software and a small hardware addition that prevents and ensures their “park brake” does not engage and remains disengaged for the entire race weekend.

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