Russell revels in ‘proper day one’ after Williams turnaround

George Russell says that starting the second week of pre-season testing with an untroubled 119 lap haul feels like ‘a proper day one’ for Williams as they look to bounce back from missing the opening two days of last week’s test.

After Russell and team-mate Robert Kubica managed just 88 laps between them last week, Williams appeared to make huge strides today in Barcelona with Russell setting the third highest lap count of the day while shaving 1.3 seconds off his best time from last week.

Despite the criticism directed at senior members of the Williams team last week, Russell maintains that the mood remains positive and praise his team for putting their ‘heart and soul’ into turning things around.

“It feels like a proper day one for us actually. It’s great to get some laps on the car to understand on low fuel and high fuel, what the car is doing and it gives us a great indication of what to do for the rest of the week,” said Russell.

“It certainly hasn’t made up for last week, no, because everybody else at this stage are fine tuning the balance and we [still need] to understand the car. The car isn’t in the perfect window right now, but I can feel like it’s definitely got potential.

“The whole team, everybody has put their heart and soul into making sure that today ran smoothly and it has, we’ve had no issues and we’ve completed our test run as planned.”

Russell, who will make his Formula 1 debut next month at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, said he wasn’t surprised by the team’s improved showing today and spoke of his ‘relief’ at finally getting the chance to learn more about the car’s potential.

“I think after the last couple of weeks it’s a huge relief to get a day like today,” said Russell.

“We’ve learned so much about the car in low fuel and high fuel, and it gives us such a good indication moving forward into the next few days, and also for the guys back at the factory who are already designing the upgrades.

“I wasn’t surprised to be honest because that was our full focus on Thursday and Friday to make sure that this day was a very good day and that’s what the team has done, and I'm proud of the guys.”

After doubling the team’s lap count from last week, Russell also explained that there was no secret to the team’s turnaround today and that the FW42 car he drove was ‘not massively different’ and had ‘probably 95%’ of the parts the team ran with during week one.

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