Williams all smiles ahead of F1 season opener in Melbourne

The famous Williams F1 team, partnered by Acronis, is once again feeling good about itself as the start of another eagerly anticipated season kicks off in Melbourne from 13-15 March.

Twelve months seem to have flown by since the team’s troubled start to the 2019 season, when they were behind the eight ball from the word go after teething troubles meant they missed half of the opening pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. But, having learned from the experience and with a re-structuring of the technical department, Williams were on time and on target after an encouraging start to pre-season testing this time around.

With George Russell and new teammate Nicholas Latifi undertaking duties behind the wheel of the FW43, both drivers were positive with their feedback after the six days drew to a close.

"These six days of testing have been a little bit of vindication for us."#WeAreWilliams 💙 pic.twitter.com/K3ig2dnDVz

— ROKiT WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) March 3, 2020

“We got plenty of laps on the board and it was good preparation ahead of Australia,” said Russell after the conclusion of testing. “No doubt we are in a better position than last year, but we’re not going to get carried away. I am optimistic that we can go to Melbourne and be in the fight, but until we get there we won’t know for sure. From both myself and everyone at the team, we are going to go there and do our best to get everything out of the car.”

Of course, it’s still very early days and the proof of the pudding will be when racing proper commences in Melbourne and beyond. And whilst nobody expects a dramatic surge up the grid, there are signs that the team can at least a little more competitive than it was last year towards the tail end of the grid and possibly even better.

“It’s still early days, but the car certainly looks better than last year’s and that’s what we wanted to demonstrate, that we can make progress,” added Deputy Team Principal, Claire Williams. “We now have some time to go through all the data we’ve gathered in order to make sure we have the optimum configuration going into Melbourne. We will continue to fight hard to bring continual improvement to the car and look forward to seeing it take to the track in Australia.”

Say it with us, it's RACE WE….

…OK, OK, not just yet but one more week without racing and then we're back 🙌#WeAreWilliams 💙 pic.twitter.com/jXj9ez9nah

— ROKiT WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) March 2, 2020