Russell: "The car's aerodynamics are too sensitive"

Williams has had to find their way out of a deep valley and although the FW43 looks promising at times, they haven't scored any points yet. In qualifying the car can come along well in the rear, but in the races the team falls clearly short to the rest. George Russell thinks he knows what the problem is.

Good qualifying, bad races

"It’s a bit strange at the moment. We’ve had three races now: two very good qualifying, one good qualifying and three very poor races", says the British driver to Racefans. According to Russell, the main reason is that the effect of turbulent air coming from ahead creates instability.

"Our car is very sensitive to following others and it becomes very difficult to control when were are ini the wake of others. Obviously on a Saturday [in qualifying] you’re not following others", which explains the comparatively good qualifications. That also means there is still work to be done. "So that’s the only understanding that we can take away from this."

Too sensitive

With a car that is very difficult to drive in dirty air, it becomes very difficult to open an attack when the drivers see a hole. The biggest problem is that the car feels like it is losing a lot of downforce and therefore becomes unpredictable. That's not what you want and that suggests that the aerodynamic package is too sensitive.

"The car is very strong and feels really nice to drive in a quali format. But just in the race, when following cars it isn’t and it takes confidence away from me. When I’m in clear air in the race our pace is strong or during a practice session in clear air with high fuel pace is strong."

Finally, Russell argues that everything points in the direction of too sensitive aerodynamics, as already mentioned, and that is what Williams should focus on now.