George Russell was back behind the wheel for ROKiT Williams Racing once again during the afternoon session on Day 4 of the opening pre-season Formula One test.

Following on from the initial shakedown of the FW42 on Wednesday afternoon, George’s team-mate Robert Kubica started the day in the car for the team, where extensive aerodynamic testing and systems checks were the priority of the morning's running. Robert completed 48 laps before handing over the car to George for the afternoon session.

Following a short delay after the lunch break, George hit the track once again to gather more valuable data from the 2019 car, as the team again prioritised in various system checks and aerodynamic tests in preparation for the second week of Pre-Season testing from 26th February - 1st March.

It was a slightly truncated afternoon session but nevertheless George completed 17 laps in the car - setting a best lap time of 1:20.977s around the Circuit de Catalunya.
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George Russell - ROKiT Williams Racing Driver:‍

“It was very important to get some mileage under our belt and get a feel for the car. It gives us a good understanding of where we are at, our limitations and what we need to work on next week.
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The car felt stable and I had a good feeling, but I am still yet to reach the full performance from the car. We are all excited to get back out on track on Tuesday but first we have a lot of work to do to make sure that the car is in the best possible state, that we have no issues and we can get the laps because we have some catching up to do.”

Paddy Lowe - ROKiT Williams Racing Chief Technical Officer:
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“The start of our first proper pre-season testing with the FW42. The final few parts had arrived overnight, so we started the day with a complete car.

The main focus of the programme has been data gathering particularly around aerodynamics with only a very modest amount of performance running for the drivers just to get some initial feedback. Neither driver was able to get enough laps to really find the limits of the car.

The morning was a much better session for Robert in the sense of objectives achieved. Unfortunately, we had a small fault at the end of the morning session which took a long time to correct and so we were late out for the afternoon and had a mixture of other small problems and red flags.

This meant we didn’t achieve all our intent with George. Nevertheless, both drivers have had their first look at the car with some interesting feedback already and we have some valuable data to take back to the factory. Our focus will now move to achieving a solid programme in the four days of testing next week.

Thanks once again to all the team for the huge effort they have put in over the last week. It has been a very difficult process for everybody, but we are now moving forwards”

Photographs Courtesy of XPB Images

Additional Press Content Courtesy of ROKiT Williams Racing

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