“Big effort” for Williams to repair F1 cars after race-ending Imola shunts

Latifi crashed out on the opening lap of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as he came across on Nikita Mazepin after recovering from an earlier spin, spearing off into the barriers.

While running inside the top ten, Russell collided with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas on the run down to the first sequence of corners at Imola - an incident that was deemed to be a racing incident by the stewards.

Dave Robson, who is Williams’ head of vehicle performance, explained it required significant manpower for the team to replace the parts after the two crashes at Imola.

“The result in Imola was disappointing and has required a big effort from the factory to recover our stock of parts,” Robson said. “Fortunately, there were a lot of good things from the weekend too and we are now in Portugal looking forward to building on the progress made last time out.”

After struggling in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Williams saw both of its cars progress into Q2 at Imola.

Robson is hopeful the Grove-based outfit can continue this form into Portimao this weekend.

“Portimao is an excellent circuit, fast and flowing with a lot of elevation change,” Robson added. “With the final corner being very quick, the straight is long and fast, especially with DRS. The circuit had been recently resurfaced when we were here last year and that made conditions difficult for the tyres. Pirelli have brought the same compounds as last year – the hardest of their range – but the maturing of the tarmac should improve the overall performance.

“Last year we had a reasonably successful weekend and both drivers enjoyed the challenge of the circuit. We hope that the FW43B will work well here, allowing us to build on the performance that we showed in Imola. We have plenty of work to get through on Friday, primarily focusing on the tyres, but we are looking forward to the challenge.”