Williams’ Dave Robson: “Nyck drove an excellent race today”

After an FIA Formula 1 World Championship debut at the Italian Grand Prix to remember for Nyck de Vries, Williams Racing’s Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson has heaped the praise on the Dutch driver stating that de Vries ‘drove an excellent race’ at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.

Nyck de Vries was drafted in at last minute’s notice on Saturday to replace Alex Albon as the Thai driver had fallen ill with appendicitis, Albon has since recovered following surgery and was discharged from hospital on Tuesday.

The Dutch driver had seen his original qualifying position of thirteenth improved come race day and lined up on the fourth row of the grid in eighth place. Throughout the first eight laps, de Vries was able to hold onto his position but he would soon fall back a place on lap nine as Carlos Sainz Jr. made it past the stand-in Williams driver.

Williams and de Vries opted for an aggressive one-stop strategy which saw the Dutchmen start on the soft tyre and on lap twenty pit for a set of medium tyres to take him to the end of the race. The 2021 FIA Formula E champion rejoined the grid in fourteenth place and was able to work his way back into the points by the time of the late safety car.

Williams resisted the temptation to pit de Vries for a fresher set of soft tyres during the late safety-car period and with the race finishing under the safety car it had proved to be a wise decision by the team. De Vries went on to cross the finish line in ninth place to become the sixty-seventh driver in Formula 1 history to score points in their debut race.

Dave Robson was left particularly delighted by how de Vries was able to turn in such an impressive performance given the short amount of time he had to prepare for the Grand Prix.

“Nyck drove an excellent race today and was able to defend when required as well as keeping constant pressure on the cars ahead. We gave him an ambitious strategy which would push his Soft and Medium tyres to the limit. The late safety car offered some protection in the final laps and also helped him manage a hot front brake disc.

“However, he got himself into that position by driving extremely well, managing the start and the pit stop expertly and by fighting hard using a car and setup that he had only driven for 34 laps yesterday. He did no high fuel running prior to the laps to the grid and had never driven a full stint on these tyres in racing conditions. The work that he and his team put in overnight was excellent and he deserved this result.“

Despite starting on the fifth row of the grid behind his teammate in tenth place, Nicholas Latifi was unable to follow his teammate’s impressive pace around the Monza circuit.

Latifi was caught out in the action heading into turn one, and disappointingly for the Canadian driver, he found himself falling down the order. After starting in tenth, Latifi found himself in fourteenth place by the end of the opening lap.

While his teammate opted for the soft tyre to medium tyre strategy around Monza, Williams and Latifi decided to start the race on the medium compound before switching onto a fresh set of hard tyres. Unable to mark a charge through the field after losing out on a points-paying position on the opening lap, Latifi made the late switch for a set of soft tyres as the safety car came out.

However, with the race failing to get going as a result of Daniel Ricciardo’s car taking too long to remove from the track, the race would finish under the safety car, denying Latifi the chance of making up places on his new set of soft tyres.

Latifi came home for a fifteenth-placed finish, which to the Canadian would have been made all the more disappointing by Nyck de Vries’ finish inside the points as the Dutchmen looks to potentially take Latifi’s seat within the Williams team for the 2023 Formula 1 season.

While the result wasn’t what he and the team had hoped for, Robson praised Latifi’s response from his poor opening lap but did state that his opening lap misfortune was what cost him any chance of a points finish.

“Nicholas had a tricky start to the race, losing out at the first chicane before mounting a good recovery showing decent pace on the Hard tyre to get back into the fight with Stroll and Tsunoda, Schumacher and Bottas. Unfortunately, he couldn’t recover all the loss from the opening laps and finished in 15th.”

With a much-needed two-week break ahead for the team after an intense triple header, Robson is looking forward to the time away from the track but is looking for the team to hit the ground running next time out in Singapore.

“It was good to complete this triple header with another points finish and we can now enjoy some rest before we head to Singapore for the first of the flyaway races that will end the 2022 season.”

Credit: Williams Media