Williams delighted with 'quick and consistent' rookie Luca Ghiotto

Luca Ghiotto-Williams
© XPB 

Williams second day of testing in Budapest was entrusted to F2 racer Luca Ghiotto, a fresh face in F1 who wrapped up his day with a massive 161 lap tally.

The young Italian acquitted himself well, handling Williams heavy workload without any issues. 

"We had a very optimistic program and we more than achieved everything we set out to do so I’m very pleased with the way the day went," said Williams' chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson.

" We started off doing some short runs, doing some chassis work in the morning on new tyres and then they rolled into long runs in the afternoon.

"Luca was pretty quick and consistent which is exactly what we needed. He gave very good feedback and we’re very pleased with the results we got from today."

The 22-year-old missed out on a fast run late in the day on the supersoft tyre when the session was red-flagged, but was otherwise enthused with his long day behind the wheel of the FW40.

"What can I say other than first of all, I have to say a big thank you to Williams and everyone that made this possible because I have been working on this since I started racing," said Ghiotto.

"It was unbelievable and now that the day is over, I can say it has been more unbelievable than I thought it could have been.

"I am really happy about today, especially because I can see the team is happy about the work we’ve done, all the things we’ve tested have worked out well and we were good, we could feel all the changes we made.

"The car is unbelievable to drive and of course it took me a lot to adapt to such a great car. I did many laps which I’m surprised about.

"I couldn’t believe I could do 161 laps which is a lot, especially on such a tight track on a hot day, so yeah, I am really, really happy about the whole day.

"It was a shame we couldn’t do a laptime on the supersoft tyres because of the red flag at the end but still, considering all the tyres we ran and the conditions, I am really happy and also from what I saw, the team is happy with everything as well."

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