Williams rue "small mistake" with "big effect"

Williams team principal Jost Capito is "95 per cent clear" as to the cause of the fire on Nicholas Latifi's car on the second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Latifi was forced to sit out the Friday afternoon session at the Bahrain International Circuit after his brakes caught fire and a tyre exploded.

"I think 95 per cent it is clear what it was," Capito told media including GPFans.

"It was a process that is a bit too complicated and that led to a mistake. A very small mistake but it had quite a big effect."

Asked if the issue was one that could be easily rectified, Capito confirmed: "It's very easy!

"No design [problem]. It's too stupid to talk about it."

Assessing the cost of the lost track time, Capito explained: "Especially having tyre data because we didn't do the tyre test at the end of last year so that hurts us quite a lot.

"I think it will have an impact on the performance of the first races having lost one-sixth of the testing."

After Williams ran Alex Albon for a full day on Thursday, Nicholas Latifi lost the majority of his eight hours on day two, completing just 12 laps.

In order to make up this time for the Canadian, Latifi will split the final afternoon session in Bahrain with Albon after completing the morning session as was previously planned.

Explaining the plan, Capito said: "He will get the afternoon and after lunch, Alex will get a qualifying session because he hasn't done that and both will end up with about the same number of laps [overall]."

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

F1 insider shares Mercedes reaction to George Russell's explosive team radio rant

• 38 minutes ago

Key Red Bull figure returns at Hungarian GP after F1 absence

• 1 hour ago

Charles Leclerc lays bare Ferrari frustration: 'It's very difficult to be confident'

• 2 hours ago

F1 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix weather forecast - latest from Hungaroring

• Today 13:54

F1 fans yearn for the days when commentators were willing to drop the suffocating diplomacy

• Today 12:27

George Russell 'wants answers' from Mercedes as F1 paranoia builds

• Today 10:56