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‘If we keep pushing, we can begin to crack into top ten’
‘If we keep pushing, we can begin to crack into top ten’
With a Technology Centre in Doha, the world famous Williams F1 Team is the closest thing Qatar has to a local F1 team. In the second of a series of exclusive columns for the Gulf Times,
I’ve been a regular visitor to Qatar since I joined Williams in 2010 and myself and teammates Pastor Maldonado and Susie Wolff visited Doha last month for a range of activities. We had a tour of Aspire Zone and met Aspire Academy students, visited the Museum of Islamic Art where we signed autographs for local students, visited Qatar Foundation at Education City and of course stopped off at the Williams Technology Centre to see the team there. It was a busy day but we all had fun viewing Doha and meeting the locals who were very accommodating. I can never believe how much the skyline changes each time I come back! |
Finally after the long haul flights, we’re into the European part of the F1 season and that’s a relief for all the teams and drivers as it’s much easier logistically. I think everyone at Williams was expecting a better set of performances, particularly when compared to the competition. Every time we run we understand more about the car and everyone back at the factory in Oxfordshire is working flat-out to maximise its outright pace. Given the results so far we can see that Toro Rosso and Sauber are not that far away, so if we can keep making steps and keep pushing, then I think we can really begin to crack into the top ten.
Each season, every team is allowed to have up to four days of straightline aerodynamic testing, and so the team decided to do some running in Spain, at the Idiada test facility, just prior to the grand prix in Barcelona to further develop the car. When you watch Formula 1 races on TV they look very glamorous, but an aero test – which we do behind closed doors – couldn’t be more different. We base ourselves in an awning at the side of one of the team trucks and there are no spectators, no sponsors, no press – it really is all very top secret. Sometimes you notice the occasional spy trying to take pictures and when we run in England there is often a small collection of enthusiasts watching from the side of the road.
Since I’ve been with Williams in 2010, I’ve conducted about two or three aero tests a year and people ask me whether it’s boring just driving up and down in a straightline all day. The truth is I don’t actually mind the work because I enjoy helping with the development of the car and the runs are really important to correlate data and test new parts.
We start at 9am in the morning and finish at five, often without stopping for lunch. In total I’ll spend between seven and eight hours strapped inside the car, with just the occasional ten minute break. When you sit in the same position for that many hours your body does feel a bit tight in places when you get out of the car. But actually, physically it’s not too much of a problem, it’s harder mentally to keep up all of that concentration.
We actually delayed our running by a couple of days because of bad weather. We have to ensure we get a completely clear day, with no rain, because as soon as you’ve fired up the car – that counts as a day’s test and with just four allocated to each team a year – you don’t want anything to spoil the full day’s running.
We found the latest aero test produced a lot of data and was very useful towards our on-going car development and now as the European campaign is underway we’ll continue to bring new parts to enhance the performance of the car and try and move ourselves further up the grid. There is still a lot more work to be done, but as we all know, it’s a very long season...