F1 News
Latifi optimistic: "Did more than I had to"
- GPblog.com
Williams driver Nicholas Latifi has so far lagged behind teammate George Russell in terms of results. Nevertheless, the rookie himself believes he has made quite some progress, especially in qualifying.
Latifi satisfied despite being outperformed
Even though he hasn't beaten Russell in qualifying yet, Latifi does see progress. For example, in Q1 on the Nurburgring, he stayed within 0.248 seconds behind his teammate.
"I don't feel I've been able to get the best out of the car, but I've made progress," said the Canadian to Motorsportweek.com. "I've made some small changes to my driving style, and by trying what works in one situation and what doesn't in another. Especially the way the car feels in qualifying, sometimes I have to adjust my natural driving style. It feels unnatural, but it's faster".
He also looks at how his teammate does it. "You can influence lap times by winning a tenth with late braking and losing a tenth at the exit or the other way around. I'm trying to get the most out of this and do as George does, because he usually gets the most out of the car," said Latifi.
"There are a lot of corners where I could be faster. The way I'm driving now doesn't give me much room for error. I'm looking forward to seeing how the next couple of Grand Prixs go and if I can make it through".
"Although I wasn't satisfied with qualifying in Germany, I felt I was doing more than I should have done. I drove a couple of messy laps because I'm not used to this style of driving yet. But I hope to continue and refine this way of driving", Latifi ends optimistically.