The Haas drivers finished last in qualifying for each of the first three races of the 2021 season – just ahead of Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain because of his starting penalty and also with Yuki Tsunoda in Imola after the AlphaTauri driver’s first QT crash.
But Schumacher’s P18 in qualifying in Barcelona brought him one place and 0.102 seconds ahead of Latifi, whom he also defeated in the last race in Portugal.
When asked by Autosport what went wrong for Latifi and whether Schumacher’s qualifying result surprised Williams, the team’s head of vehicle performance, Dave Robson replied, “I’m not sure if it might be a surprise.
“Because I clearly think that Schumacher has shown big improvements in the last couple of races and was very strong in Portugal.
“I think that probably better reflects where the car is now.
“I think he has improved a lot.
“But it’s disappointing with Nicholas. He’s had a really tough weekend.
“It wasn’t bad yesterday, but not satisfied with the car.
“And then this morning in RP3 he’s never been as happy as George with the overnight changes that we didn’t really understand [why] still.
Nicholas Latifi, Williams FW43B
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
“And then I think the main thing in qualifying was that, to his surprise, he had a much better grip on Turn 9 in one of those early laps.
“He actually ran a bit far with a little understeer, which was the first time he had been there all weekend. [He] drove over the curb and damaged the bargeboards on his car.
“Well, I think that definitely hurt him on the following runs. We pre-sort replacements for these bargeboards [the race].
“He definitely had a wounded car as he got further into the first quarter. But yeah, he’s only having a few problems this weekend. “
Schumacher’s Q1 time was 0.2 seconds slower than Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Räikkönen, and afterwards the German said he could have driven two tenths faster, which would have been the 2007 world champion’s time of 1: 18.917 minutes.
If Schumacher had delivered his best sectors in his last Q1 run, he would have beaten Raikkonen, who had delivered his ideal lap time in qualifying in the first qualifying segment, as the Haas driver would have produced 1: 18.899 minutes.
“I think I probably only drove two tenths on this lap [off my best]”, Explained Schumacher.
“That would be equivalent to what Kimi did. And that’s why I think we can be pretty happy.
“It’s just about bringing these lap times together and bringing them closer and closer [making] the spread of the sectors smaller.
“So yeah, I think we’re generally on the right track. In any case, we can be happy [my qualifying] Performance.”
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