Formula 1

Successful Abu Dhabi test brings down curtain on F1 season

Fraser Masefield
23 Nov 2022
4 min read

The Williams Racing F1 team, partnered by Acronis, closed out its 2022 Formula One season with a highly promising test in Abu Dhabi.

With new recruit Logan Sargeant having been confirmed as a first team for 2023 just a day prior, the young American completed a substantial 82 laps of the circuit in setting a quickest lap of 1m26.063s – a time that put him seventh out of the 24 drivers.

“Today went well,” commented Sargeant on his team’s official press release. “Throughout the day we gradually progressed, got through our test plan and completed all the laps we needed to do. By the end of the day I felt super comfortable.

“It was really nice to get a full day rather than a FP1 to properly get to grips with everything. My season hasn’t ended, there’s a lot of work to do over the next three months to prepare myself for next season.

“I’ll strictly be in the gym, on the simulator and working with everyone at Grove to ensure no stone is left unturned. I can’t wait to be back out on track for winter testing for my first season in Formula 1.”

For Sargeant’s new and now experienced F1 teammate Alexander Albon, it was also a productive session, the Anglo-Thai driver completing 118 laps with a best time of 1m25.959s that put him a place higher in sixth behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

“Today at the post-season test we got good mileage in and everything went to plan,” commented Albon. “We got to test all the different compounds for next year and there will be a lot of data to look at over the winter months to try to understand the differences of the tyre, but inevitably there’s not a huge difference, I think it’s all small things.

“The hard work starts now working to make sure that we enter into Bahrain with the best possible car we can and I think today, with all the data that we have learnt, is going to help us do that.”

As mentioned by Albon, the primary purpose of the end of season test was to give the new 2023 Pirelli tyres a serious workout with drivers completing their own set programmes. And for Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, the programme went exactly according to plan.

“We’ve had a very productive day to complete the 2022 season,” added Robson. “Both cars ran reliably throughout, which allowed Alex and Logan to run their intended programmes. Alex ran through a series of tyre tests, exploring the 2023 tyres at various track temperatures and fuel loads.

“Logan got his first experience of a proper day of F1 testing as well as some useful exposure to the 2023 tyres. We were able to do a lot more work with him than is possible during an FP1 session and everything he did will set him up nicely for the crucial pre-season testing that we will do next February.

“The timesheets don’t mean very much today as every driver is completing their own programme. However, it was nice to see both drivers near the top having completed some very good laps on the softer compounds. Logan drove exceptionally well and fully deserved to be so close to Alex.”

TEAM UP WITH ACRONIS

Prominent once again on the nose of the car and on the front wing endplates this season are the team’s official cyber protection partner Acronis. Williams Racing uses Acronis technology to add extra layers of protection to its IT infrastructure, protecting hundreds of servers and endpoint devices.

During the 2021 season and continuing this year, Acronis opened up an exciting #TeamUp Program, giving new and existing service providers the opportunity to support sports partnerships, join the sports ecosystem, attend races and enjoy amazing sports marketing benefits.

To find out more and to become a part of this exciting #TeamUp programme, please visit Cyber Protection for global sports – Acronis

Williams Racing.
Spanish Grand Prix, Friday 20th May 2022. Barcelona, Spain.

Fraser Masefield

Sports news and features writer, web editor and author.

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