ROKiT Williams Racing Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams has confirmed rumours of the team’s strategy on the first Friday of the Formula 1 season.
“We were sandbagging”
“We know it might look like our car is a piece of crap, but we did this deliberately” Claire Williams confirmed.
“Sure, the car may appear undriveable, and it broke down at several points, and the timing sheets say we’re 3-4 seconds off the pace, but that’s not a tre indication” Williams told us.
“It’s more like 2-3 seconds off the pace”
The team opting to adopt the tactic used by Mercedes during Winter testing.
“If it’s good enough for Mercedes, it’s good enough for us!” George Russell told us.
“Mercedes are undoubtedly the benchmark” Russell continued, “so naturally if they decide to hide their real speed, the rest of the grid are going to follow suit”
“Unfortunately we haven’t nailed the real speed bit” Russell confirmed, “we’re great at the hiding, just we have nothing to hide”
Claire Williams was a little more guarded.
“At this stage we’re playing our cards close to our chest” Williams told us.
“We don’t want to reveal our hand just yet” Williams confirmed.
“Because it’s not a great hand” Williams confirmed