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George Russell: Williams still the slowest car but have reduced the gap

George Russell: Williams "still the slowest car" but have "reduced the gap"

10-03-2020 09:04

George Russell believes that Williams have improved but the team will still be the slowest on the grid. Williams were miles off the pace in 2019 and Russell believes they will be able to compete on occasions but still expects to be at the back of the grid. 

“No doubt we’re in a better position,” Russell said to RaceFans. “But I think realistically we are still the slowest car. I’m not going to get carried away with ourselves, but we’ve definitely reduced the gap.

“So that’s all we could have hoped for over the winter and we’ll go to Melbourne and see. But like I said, don’t expect to see us in Q2, Q3 sort of thing. We’ve definitely improved but expectations are all under control.”

Last season Williams had no chance of racing any other team on the grid. The team hope that they will be a bit more competitive in 2020 and get more than one championship point throughout the season. 

“Last year when we out-performed our car we were still qualifying 19th and finishing 19th,” Russell said. “So I hope this year when people slip up and we perform well, that’s when we can take opportunities and we should be racing.

“But like I say, expectations are under control. Doing it in Barcelona when the test is one thing, going to Melbourne will be a completely different story.”

Many will hope to see Williams fighting higher up the grid and contributing to the racing action more in 2020.