Williams calls it a day after Lance Stroll goes off track
Lance Stroll's first day as an official driver lasted just 12 laps, as the young Canadian driver went off-course, causing damage that could not be repaired later in the day.
During the first day of testing, Williams experienced the third-best reliability on the grid, with 103 laps completed by Felipe Massa, who came out of retirement before it even began to cover for the departure of Valtteri Bottas. The second day was much less productive as Lance Stroll was only able to complete 12 laps throughout the day.
Indeed, the F3 champion spun as explained by Rob Smedley, the director of engineering at Williams:
« Lance was on his sixth lap of his second stint when he spun out. The grip was particularly low, so he spun and went into the gravel trap backwards. »
VIDEO: Lance Stroll incident at @Circuitcat_es #F1 #F1testing pic.twitter.com/wCRxsgSFli
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If he didn’t hit the wall, this outing resulted in damage to the front wing of the single-seater. However, in these early days of winter testing, the team does not yet have all the spare parts and front wings are on the list of parts in shortage: « Even though the accident was entirely fortuitous, we unfortunately had some damage, which we are currently in the process of repairing. We are sending some composite parts from the factory, which should arrive during the course of tomorrow. We are doing everything possible to be back on track as soon as possible tomorrow. »
The Williams rookie therefore lost a precious one of his four short testing days due to this error. The schedule for the days is likely to be quite busy.
