P14 the result Russell expected in ‘dull’ Monaco GP

Jamie Woodhouse
George Russell Nicholas Latifi Williams

P14 the result George Russell expected in "dull" Monaco Grand Prix.

The Monaco Grand Prix was a race of few thrills for George Russell as he crossed the line P14, matching his expectations.

Russell was able to clear the Q1 hurdle once again in 2021 around the streets of Monte Carlo, but it had been clear all weekend that this venue was not one which suited the FW43B.

And so P14 was a strong result as Russell finished ahead of the likes of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, but it was not exactly a finishing position beyond what he had envisaged.

“It was really tricky, we finished where we expected really more or less,” he said in the media pen.

“We just didn’t really have the pace this whole weekend which made the race very tricky, but nevertheless it was always great fun driving around these streets, but ultimately we want to get the result.

“It was a dull race for everyone and relatively dull from within, nothing too exciting. So that is Monaco sometimes, and we go to Baku [next].”

Russell explained that Monaco was never going to play to the strengths of the Williams, which does not respond well to slow corners.

“We knew before this weekend that we struggle low-speed, these high sensitivity corners, and our rivals Alfa [Romeo] that is where they excel,” he admitted.

“To be honest everything was pretty much as we expected it really, the performance wasn’t fantastic from my side, I think I was a little bit off the pace.

“But result wise even if I was half-a-second a lap quicker I would have been in the same position.”

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Latifi knew it would be a challenge to keep his concentration with Williams lacking pace, but the fact that he forgot to put his drink bottle tube into his mouth pre-race was not ideal.

“This isn’t really a track that suits the car, the slow-speed nature of it, all the bumps, it’s not really to our car’s liking,” said the Canadian.

“So we knew it was going to be a tricky one, it was definitely one of the most difficult races I’ve had mentally just trying to keep the concentration, I kind of knew it was going to be that way right from the first consecutive laps in FP1.

“But I’m relatively pleased with the race, I think I maximised what I could, got ahead of Yuki at the start which was great.

“I was pushing George along quite well and I managed to go quite a bit further than him, just managed the tyres quite good, so I think the only mistake I made was before the race even started I forgot to put the drinks tube in my mouth.

“I didn’t realise until afterwards so it was fine.”

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