Alex Albon says his first outing onboard Williams' new-spec FW44 highlighted potential visibility issues that drivers are likely to encounter on certain tracks this season.
Williams conducted a shakedown run of its new 2022-spec car at Silverstone on Tuesday, just after the team had showcased its new livery during an online presentation.
While there were no specific issues reported by Albon and teammate Nicholas Latifi, both drivers did note after their run a visibility concern caused by the wheel wake deflectors located on top of F1's new 18-inch wheels.
The issue was also previously reported by Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen based on their preliminary simulator work.
Albon reckons things could be a little "tricky" for drivers at certain street circuit venues, especially when racing wheel-to-wheel.
©Williams
"Today, we had kind of the worst of it, a dark, gloomy, wet day at Silverstone. But it wasn’t too bad," said Williams' new charger, quoted by The Race. .
"I think we’re going to struggle more when we go to street tracks, when we come towards Monaco, Baku, Jeddah, that’s going to be the tricky ones.
"Because on open tracks, you can see far ahead of you. With the blind spots of the tyre and the deflectors it takes away a lot that immediate view, kind of as you’re looking into the corner.
"So what you end up doing is you’re looking actually further around the corner, which on a street track past a wall, there’s only more wall! So you can’t see much around it.
"So I think that’s going to be the tricky one and also just combat driving, I think that’s also going to be something a little bit trickier to see where you are, where the front wing is, where your tyres are. That might be a little bit more tricky."
- Read also: Williams drops Senna tribute on new FW44
Latifi echoed his teammate's visibility concerns.
"It definitely is worse in some corners, I guess it just depends on the kind of corner, how much you’re steering into the corner and where your gaze is going," commented the Canadian.
"I think that’ll just be something that everyone has to get used to. But it is definitely instances where you do see less for sure."
While both drivers were given an opportunity to get acquainted with their new mount, offering a proper initial assessment of the FW44 was impossible given the circumstances, the wet track and the control tyres supplied by Pirelli for the shakedown run.
"It was wet for us so maybe a little bit harder to compare to from previous years," said Albon.
"But honestly, it feels like a racing car! It feels pretty decent out of the box.
"It’s hard to say with the promo tyres and, and a lovely wet track in the UK, but it all feels pretty normal. Nothing stand out at the moment.
"I think once we get towards the latter end of testing, when we start seeking the true gains with the car, putting it on its limits, then we’ll really see what the car is like on the limit.
"But I can say for now especially today, both Nicky and I weren’t pushing that hard."
©Williams
Despite the limited mileage and no-risk approach, Latifi felt that the new-spec car definitely had a different feel to it compared to its Williams predecessor, part of which was due to the FW44's increased weight.
"It’s wet, the tyres still don’t really offer a lot of grip in the wet, the full wet tyre," he said. "It’s really tricky to get any kind of proper feeling of the car.
"It definitely feels very different to last year for sure. Feels like you’re driving a heavier car. But beyond that, I was nowhere near the limits.
"We’re kind of just making sure everything’s running, making sure the seat’s comfortable and any little adjustments we want to make on that.
"So besides that, I’m not really reading too much into anything else that I felt."
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