Williams reaching Q2 the "absolute minimum" target

Williams, United States GP — Photo: © LAT Images

United States Grand Prix

Williams reaching Q2 the "absolute minimum" target

Williams finished 18th and 19th in FP2

Ewan Gale

Saturday 23 October 2021 14:03

Williams driver Nicholas Latifi believes reaching Q2 is the "absolute minimum" for the team at each race weekend after its improvement in form.

Latifi finished only 17th and 18th in Friday practice for the United States Grand Prix with both Williams lapping slower than Mick Schumacher's Haas in the second session.

Positivity is ringing around the Grove team with performances strengthening throughout the season, racking up 23 points since the Hungarian Grand Prix with Canadian Latifi contributing seven to the tally.

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With George Russell reaching Q3 on occasion and Latifi now finding himself featuring in the second part of qualifying regularly, he said: "I think going into every weekend now, Q2 is the absolute minimum goal that we try and shoot for.

"Irrespective of the pace now, I think we are still in a good window to try and achieve that.

"Beyond that, we have to wait and see. I still don't think it is going to be clear-cut to do that, we do have a lot of work to do.

"In previous races, we still have felt a bit more confident in how we have felt after Friday but that is part of the game."

Latifi searching for answers to COTA bumps

One of the major talking points entering the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas was the effect the bumpy nature of the track would have after complaints from MotoGP riders at the start of the month.

Latifi praised the circuit layout after his first experience of driving the Austin venue in anger but conceded work needed to be done to work around the bumps.

"The track is quite an enjoyable layout. It has always been a favourite amongst the drivers, that fast-flowing first sector," explained Latifi.

"It is quite nice in these modern-day F1 cars, definitely bumpier than I would have liked.

"I guess that was a topic of discussion coming here but it is the same for everybody so we have just got to manage it, maybe a different racing line and different set-ups to make the car easier to drive.

"It is different conditions to what we have experienced in the past, it has been quite a bit cooler but now it is quite hot and the track puts a lot of energy into the tyres.

"So there are definitely some things to tune on the low and high fuel because I think we are not totally satisfied with where we are right now."