Nicholas Latifi made it to Q3 in qualifying in England, but lost positions throughout the race and finished outside the scoring zone once again
Nicholas Latifi had managed an amazing tenth place in the qualifying of the British GP, held in the rain, and put Williams in the best possible position to fight for points in the race. However, the pace of the FW44 - arguably the slowest car on the grid - prevented the Canadian from fighting for anything more, even though he was in eighth place after the restart. According to the driver, it was only possible to keep up with the 'little train' of cars with the moving wing activated.
"For the whole first stint, I was scoring points," Latifi said. "I felt like I was stuck between a pack of cars that were faster than me, and I stayed in that DRS 'train' that kept me there. So it was nice to have those feelings of competitiveness back again," he said.
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However, after the cars started to pick up pace and naturally spread out on the track, Latifi was at the mercy of those behind and started to lose positions. In the end, he finished 12th and was unable to pick up his first points of the season.
"After the pit-stops, you just succumb to the natural pace of the cars once everyone spread out - without the DRS 'train'," he continued. "And the reality is that I'm still in the slowest car on the grid, so it was frustrating not to be able to compete a little bit more," he lamented.
Besides the lack of pace, Latifi also regretted having to save fuel during the race, something especially detrimental at the Silverstone Circuit - known for its high speeds and demanding tires, especially the front left.
"We were having to manage some other things," Latifi revealed. "We got under the fuel level and I was needing to save a lot. Of all the tracks, this is the one you least want to do that on - it's the one that penalizes the tire temperatures the most. But other than that, I think we just didn't have the pace," he closed.