Abu Dhabi Test #1 – Day One

Roy Nissany (ISR) Williams Racing Test Driver. Formula One Testing, Tuesday 3rd December 2019. Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, UAE.


Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: George was back in the car this morning, fresh from a strong performance during the race on Sunday. We took the opportunity to explore the 2020 tyre offering from Pirelli and completed a series of comparison runs on several of the proposed 2020 compounds, using the 2019 tyres as the baseline. We were able to evaluate the performance in both short and long runs as we worked to maximise the potential of the new tyres.

George enjoyed a clean morning with no track disruptions and was able to get a good understanding of how the 2020 tyres will perform at higher track temperatures. Once George had completed his tyre programme, we prepared the car for Roy Nissany who made his debut in the FW42 this afternoon. The main objectives with Roy were to get him comfortable in the car and to give him his first experience of the FW42 whilst gathering his thoughts on the 2020 tyres. We completed all these objectives without issue and Roy did an excellent job on his first day with the Team.

Roy will continue in the car tomorrow morning and will complete the aero rake running that is permitted during the first hour of each day. After that he will complete some clean car running before handing the car over to Nicholas, who will spend the rest of the day completing our tyre testing programme and generally preparing himself for his debut Formula One race in Melbourne in little over 3 months’ time.

George Russell: It was a productive day in the car. We ran five sets of 2020 tyres and gathered some useful information, which will benefit us next season. I am looking forward to Australia and going racing again.

Roy Nissany: Firstly, I feel great. You know that feeling that you like your job and you know what you are doing. It took me four laps to get comfortable in the car, and from there on it was just building up my pace and confidence. We were improving and making our best laps until the end, and we made a few changes according to my wishes. I now feel confident in the car, with a lot of potential in our pocket so that tomorrow morning will be exactly what we need for the last improvements in 2019.

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