- First Barcelona Test - Day Four
Williams frustrated by day of red flags
Williams says its race simulation programme was frustrated by a stop-start final day in Barcelona but says it knows where it needs to improve ahead of the final test next week.
After pit stop practice for both drivers on Saturday, Williams planned longer runs for Valtteri Bottas on Sunday - including a race simulation in the afternoon. However, the afternoon session saw three red flags fall in quick succession, before another late on for Felipe Nasr, meaning the programme was disrupted.
"Well the race sim was punctuated by about three red flags, which messed us up a bit! It also meant we couldn't do the runs on soft tyres we'd originally planned for the afternoon," said chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson. "The original plan was to do the race sim immediately after lunch and then get on to some performance work but we only managed one run and then we had Nasr's red flag at the end. It was a day of red flags - it was like having Ralf Schumacher back!"
Despite the disruption Bottas managed to clock 129 laps. Though the team was unable to compare its race simulation to those completed by Mercedes and Red Bull earlier in the week Nelson thinks the team has a good idea what areas need work .
"I think it's reasonable to say Mercedes has the legs on everyone at the moment. Red Bull maybe not so clear but we're reasonably, not satisfied, but we know where are, we know our performance deficits and we know where we've got to do additional work."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
