Williams explains Spa’s qualifying strategy as “risky but clever”

Williams driver Russell will be second on the grid for the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, behind pole sitter Max Verstappen and ahead of Lewis Hamilton, after overwhelming the Q3 field in Saturday’s qualifying.

Russell’s lap of 2: 00.086 minutes in the final moments of qualifying put him on provisional pole, with only Verstappen able to improve his time.

The Briton had originally left the pits after the red flag phase, which was caused by the serious accident of McLaren’s Lando Norris at the beginning of Q3 in Eau Rouge, still on full rain tires before pitting to switch to the intermediates, The resumption was equipped for the Red Bull and Wolffs Mercedes team.

This put Russell out of the ranks of the other Q3 runners and when he finally drove a timed lap in the last section of qualifying, it was initially only enough for ninth place and almost eight seconds slower than his personal best in Q3.

But Williams Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson, has explained how, by the end of the third quarter, Russell was preparing for one final “all-in” effort and realizing his full potential with the confidence he had built on his previous tours Battery energy development from its power supply unit.

“In this last phase of Q3 we of course left it all wet, even though we knew we had a lot of time for the pit stop,” explained Robson.

“George was very happy that the conditions were Inter, so we stopped and thought we could either do two pushing laps or, since the track dried up pretty quickly, just go all-in and aim for that one good lap End.

“So we decided to do it. We took the opportunity to do the preparatory lap, get the tires, brakes and engine in the right condition, and then just get going.

“It worked out really well. He obviously had a pretty good position on the track, so it all went well together.

“But I think Toto’s description is probably perfectly fair. In our position we were already before the corner and didn’t really have much to lose.

“When we got him into this position, his lap was extremely good. He made the most of what we could give him in every corner.

“It’s hard to find words to describe your performance over and over again – if he has a really good qualifying then he really gets better and better as the session progresses.

“And we saw that – he was brave but sensible. Simply fast, simply calm – simply a really good, professional, brilliant round. “

George Russell, Williams, celebrates after securing a front row spot

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

An additional consideration for Russell’s final Q3 lap was that he drove used intermediates as Williams had pledged not to save any of his four sets of green grounds to ensure he made it into the later stages of qualifying.

This meant the team sent Russell and Nicholas Latifi to Inters at the start of delayed Q1, where the rest of the field did their first scouting laps on full wet tires – a call that Robson described as “aggressive” to “get the driver’s confidence.” to strengthen “. “.

But the wet surface in Q1 and the 40-minute delay after Norris’ accident meant the Inters that Williams put on Russell’s car at the end of Q3 weren’t unduly worn and re-heated in the blankets in the team’s garage had been.

“I don’t think it was a huge loss [Russell running used inters in Q3]”Said Robson.

“It’s one of those situations that it’s just incredibly hard to know – conditions are always changing.

“But we knew we’d used the first set of Inters from Q1 when it was really pretty wet.

“And then such a long time had passed since Q1 that everyone was hot and back to temperature.

“So we were reasonably confident that they would be in good shape. Obviously we never dreamed of reaching P2. But we were glad they weren’t bad.”

Williams chief executive Jost Capito said that reaching the top 10 was already a good result and that the team then had nothing to lose by holding out until the end of the session.

“I think we planned it very well,” Capito told Motorsport.com. “We had enough time to plan what we were going to do and how we were going to do it, and basically we had nothing to lose.

“If we can make it in Q3, that will be the greatest success we can have. So finishing 10th is okay, isn’t it? So we had nothing to lose. So we said we’d put it all in one round . And we know George can.

“And not every driver can do everything in one lap under these conditions. And you know, we gave him the first lap on the wet side so he could safely check the conditions. Then he had two laps the intermediate level where he could do everything right.

“He was then in sync with everyone else and was able to do it in one lap with all the confidence he could get in the first three laps. He’s fantastic.

“I think it was special in every way. It wasn’t an easy qualifying either. But I think these are the conditions under which you can make the difference.”