F1 | Italian GP | Russell says Williams finishing on the points in three out of last four races is "incredible"
The Williams' drivers reflect on a weekend that allowed the British team to continue with the streak of points that has the Grove-based team sitting P8 with 22 points in the constructors' standings.
George Russell scored his first points in F1 with Williams on the Sunday of the Hungarian GP. The British driver then went into a hectic Belgium GP weekend to score a second-place finish that allowed him to add 9 points to his standings, following that, the 23 year old left Zandvoort disappointed by a DNF and finally ended the Italian GP in Monza crossing the checkered flag on 9th.
Russell showed pleased that after various seasons of getting just to the edge of the grid’s positions for points, the team is on a path that has allowed Williams to score a good quantity of points, setting the team 8th on the constructors’ standings.
“Crazy. Three out of the last four events on the points. It's pretty incredible. And I think that's what we keep doing very well, it's capitalizing. We finished ahead of two Alfas, Aston, Alpine, all on merit, all on track, just because the guys on the pit wall did a really good job at the right time.”
“We know the pace in the car and we keep on doing our best,” he said.
“I think is just a relief of everybody's shoulders, that we're scoring these points and we can just go in no pressure, and still maximize what we can and that's what we keep doing.”
Nicholas Latifi has shown good form on the latest Williams strike, scoring 7 points, 6 of which were achieved at Budapest, but unfortunately the Canadian finished the Italian GP at Monza on P11.
“I think we just got unlucky with the timing of the safety car and then lost out to George and then just lost the advantage I'd built to the cars behind.”
Latifi was disappointed as he states the team was showing signs of getting points from the #6 side of the garage. “We didn't have the quicker car and especially managing the tyres and everything in the corner, we made some compromising things to make sure we had the fastest car on the straight which is important here but we know we don't have the best car in the corners and we compromise that quite a lot to make sure we stay ahead.”
“It seemed okay once the race settled down. But was just struggling with the balance and couldn't maintain the positions on the restart which is a shame.”
“I think we were P10 before the Safety car. It's also a positive result for the team. I think anyone here would have been challenging for points and obviously a few retirements. Lots to be proud of, but just a learning race for me,” he concluded.
