Williams' "never, ever" moment achieved "on merit"

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton — Photo: © LAT Images

Williams

Williams' "never, ever" moment achieved "on merit"

George Russell claimed a remarkable second in Belgium

Ian Parkes

Friday 31 December 2021 16:40

Jost Capito believes the highlight of Williams' season was achieved "on merit" rather than "just by luck".

For the most part, Williams endured another difficult campaign, albeit there were a number of notable highs, none more so than George Russell finishing runner-up in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Not only was it the British driver's first podium after more than two and a half seasons in F1 but it was the team's first for four years.

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The caveat, of course, is the astonishing scenes on Sunday when the race was halted after a few laps behind the safety car due to torrential rain.

In his first year as team principal, however, Capito feels that should not diminish the achievements of Russell and the team given the qualifying performance on Saturday.

"The most enjoyable aspect [of the season] was the podium in Spa," recalled Capito in an end-of-season interview with GPFans.

"Nobody would ever have believed we would be able to go for a podium this year - never, ever.

"There were quite some strange circumstances but I believe, and the team believes we did that on merit, on the good performance we had in qualifying, and because of the great strategy and the proud decisions we took in qualifying.

"It's not just by luck, we did really a great job in Spa, and that for sure was the most enjoyable moment.

"Nobody would have believed we would taste the podium champagne this year. It was really absolutely fantastic.

"These are the moments you work hard for all year to have just these couple of seconds of satisfaction."

With regard to the low points, a restructuring of the organisation behind the scenes upon his arrival proved to be particularly challenging.

Of course, the nadir was the death of Sir Frank Williams.

Reflecting on these moments, Capito added: "The hard, of course, is when you have to change the organisation, when you have to take decisions on positions.

"That's always, always very hard and especially in a team that has this long heritage.

"A very sad situation, of course, the saddest was when Sir Frank passed away. I think that was a shock for the entire team and it's very, very hard to get over."