It has been an eventful weekend in the Zandvoort circuit so far. On the qualifying session, both Williams drivers caused a red flag each, but Nicholas Latifi’s car sustained more damage. Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance at Williams, was asked about the damage and state of the car and if there is a possible grid penalty for Latifi for car part changing.

“Not sure yet, we’re going through that, the damage is fairly extensive. There’s definitely going to be quite a lot of replacement parts on there. We’re just going to take a look at the gearbox and decide what to do next. I’m not sure yet.

“Quite a lot of damage there; front wing, rear wing, floor - all damaged, rear suspension, both sides damaged. So that all will get replaced,” Robson said.

And for the grid penalty for Nicholas he said that so far, the parts that need replacement are penalty free. They are still inspecting the gearbox.

Russell’s incident is speculated to have been affected by car sensitivity for the wind. Robson doesn’t think that is the case.

“I don’t think that is the case. Actually, at turn 13, that’s a proper corner on the track, it’s actually fairly sheltered, the wind doesn’t have a big effect and I think to be honest, George was just going for it all out to try and get into Q3 and I think he just pushed a little bit too hard.”

Because of the red flags, we saw all cars coming to the pitlane. Which is expected to have a slower speed and concerns about it being congested during a safety car and cars boxing during the race. Dave was also asked about the concerns of the safety car being on the way in the pit lane.

“It is a bit tight. Each pit box is closer than they are, in the middle of it all, all want to cope. If it’s tight I think for us it’s a little bit better than most. Having a clear exit ahead of us, as long as the safety car is out of the way, which I guess it will be because it will be on track enough to clear.”

“Safety is obviously the most important thing, I’m sure there’s all the guys who are in that position will be doing a bit sensible, it’s definitely tight. We witnessed it in Lewis’, I think from a position point of view if the whole field decides to come in. I don’t see teams will be able to stack their cars, that will be a problem, and they will be in safety car one car comes in and the other will have to stay out and go around.”