Williams Racing buoyant after encouraging day 2 of F1 testing in Barcelona

The Williams Racing F1 Team, partnered by Acronis, completed another productive day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, drivers Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi completing 108 laps of the iconic Barcelona circuit in total.

Day 1 of testing had been a highly encouraging affair, with both drivers acclimatising themselves after the lengthy off-season break. And on day 2 the lap times progressed further, Albon setting a 1m21.531s and Latifi a 1m21.594s respectively.

It meant that the Williams Racing duo sat bang in the middle of the lap times ahead of many of their biggest rivals despite the unknown quandary of fuel, tyres and component testing thrown into the mix.

“The FW44 has been behaving well; I’m enjoying driving it and being able to push more as we get to grips with its characteristics,” said Albon. “As a team, I’m happy with where we are and the foundations we’re building over these really important days. It’s a good start to the year and I’m looking forward to one final day of running in Barcelona.”

Following the launch of the striking new Williams Fw44, there is no doubt that it is a beautiful looking machine indeed, as regular Motorsport.Tech expert Craig Scarborough attests, with the aid of former Wiliams F1 Team Manager Peter Windsor.

“We were still able to get in a decent amount of mileage and we are continuing to learn more,” added Latifi. “We have one more day here in Barcelona, which is another opportunity to learn, build more confidence from myself and the car and prepare ourselves for Bahrain.”

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance added: “Today has been about pushing the car a little harder and working on the areas we identified yesterday as offering opportunity for improvement. We have made some decent progress and found some new avenues to explore. Although we had a couple of minor issues, which delayed our progress at times during the day, it is good that we have been able to push the car hard enough to find these snags.

“As yesterday, both race drivers shared the workload today and both were able to learn from the other. Tomorrow is the final opportunity to exercise the car before we go to Bahrain for the back to back test and race, it should also present us with the first chance to look at the new 2022 wet tyres as Pirelli are planning wet the track tomorrow afternoon.”

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, 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, please visit https://www.acronis.com/en-us/lp/msp-sports/

READ ALSO: Barcelona Day 1 report

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Motorsport Technology