Nicholas Latifi did not finish the French GP, but was very pleased with the pace of the FW44 with the updates promoted by Williams and sees the championship "starting now".
The 2022 season officially started for Williams at the French GP at Paul Ricard last Sunday. At least this is Nicholas Latifi's view, as the Grove-based team went to the French circuit with the upgrade package introduced in England on both cars, and the Canadian enjoyed the pace of the FW44 compared to past GPs.
To Autosport magazine, Latifi evaluated that the Williams' pace improvement was around almost 1s. In qualifying at Paul Ricard, Alexander Albon managed to advance to Q2, and Latifi said that had it not been for the problem with the wind on his fast lap, he would also have started in a better position than 18th.
"It's the first time since a long time that Alex and I have the same car," Latifi said. "With clean track, I was much faster. It was a shame we started so far back, I think we could have lined up further ahead. So I consider the good pace as a positive thing. Since the chassis was changed, I'm no longer 0s5 or 0s8 away, now I'm where I should be," he assessed.
"In the past races, if you take away the upgrade, I was on the same level. So now the season can really start," assured the Canadian. "In the race, I felt I was the faster of the two, and in qualifying, if it weren't for the problems, I would have done a similar time [to Albon's]. The start of the season was quite strange, something we still need to understand. I didn't change anything, but the pace magically appeared there," he added.
In the race, Latifi was involved in what he called a "racing incident" with Kevin Magnussen and lost the chance to gain positions. The abandonment was painful, but still, the pace was what caught the #6's attention the most.
"It's not [the pace] just compared to Alex's, because I've been fighting against cars I haven't fought with all year. Today I was much faster than a lot of them. That gives me confidence, of course, even though we were a bit unlucky," he added.
"I wasn't 100 percent to blame [in the crash], definitely. If anything, it was a racing incident. I felt I gave him enough space. It's a shame, because our pace was very strong and we were faster than him. I opened up a little bit [in turn 2], but the corner ends anyway," concluded the Williams representative.