FEBRUARY 20, 2019

No blame apportioned for Williams' dirty laundry

After an embarrassing delay of two and a half days, the Williams team finally got its new FW42 car out on the test track in Spain.

By Dan Knutson

After an embarrassing delay of two and a half days, the Williams team finally got its new FW42 car out on the test track in Spain.

Deputy team principal Claire Williams declined to reveal why the car was not built to schedule, saying: "There are a lot of elements but it's not appropriate to air our dirty laundry in public."

But Williams said that while compromises will have to be made to the test program, the team is confident that it will have two cars ready for Robert Kubica and George Russell when practice begins on March 15 for the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

"There are probably going to have to be some compromises we have to make," Williams told reporters in the paddock of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. "The engineers are working through that now because we have got the car out on track and we know how much time is left. They have been working hard to make sure we have got a comprehensive program.

"The most important aspect of that is going to be the aero evaluation work over the coming days. We've got a lot of great new rakes (to measure air flow around the car) that we have brought out here. It's just a case of making sure we can maximize that time making sure we've got a car that's reliable so we can get as many laps as we can possibly get."

With only eight days of preseason testing permitted, Williams has lost a considerable amount of valuable track time. How will this delay affect the team for the rest of the season?

"At the moment that is difficult to answer just because it is early days," Williams responded. "We've missed two days of testing, and that's not ideal. That's a lot of potential kilometers. But I don't think that we will actually know the full impact of having missed those days until probably a bit later on.

"Clearly we're doing everything we can to condense the program that we had, to make sure that we maximized the time available and we really focused our efforts and attention on the most important and critical areas to make sure the car is in the best shape possible for Australia. But I don't think that we can actually tell now what impact it will have."

So Williams definitely will have two cars ready for Australia?

"Yes, I am certain we will have two cars in Melbourne," Williams confirmed. "We need to make sure everything is on plan for that and it currently is."