Williams to miss opening day of testing

Williams has announced it will not take part in the opening day of pre-season testing on Monday due to ongoing delays with its new car.

The FW42 has yet to be seen in the flesh, with Williams using a show car to launch its 2019 livery last week and then releasing renderings of the new car on Friday. Having already canceled a filming day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday while trying to get the car ready for testing, deputy team principal Claire Williams now says the team will not be running on Monday.

“Unfortunately, we have had to delay the start of our pre-season Barcelona test to Tuesday morning,” Williams said. “We have had an incredibly busy winter at Grove getting the FW42 prepared for the season ahead and, despite everyone’s best efforts, we need some more time before it will be ready to run.”

Despite losing one of the eight days of pre-season testing, Williams insists the setback is not a major problem for the team, with a good weather forecast for the full first week.

“Our absolute priority is to always ensure we bring a car to the track that is the best that it can be and sometimes that takes longer than you’d anticipate or like. It’s clearly not ideal, but equally it’s not the end of the world.

“We will obviously have our work cut out to recover the time lost but we still have seven days of testing left and we will be maximizing that time to prepare the car for the first race.”

As a result of the delayed start to testing, both George Russell and Robert Kubica will miss out on half a day’s running each. Russell will share Tuesday with reserve driver Nicholas Latifi, with Latifi opening Wednesday before handing over to Kubica, and then the two race drivers both appearing on the final day of the first test.