Alex Albon offered a very positive early assessment of Williams' FW45 after his shakedown run onboard the new machine at Silverstone on Monday.
Albon and teammate Logan Sargeant both took part in the British outfit's F1 'filming day' which restricts mileage to 100 km on Pirelli control tyres.
Albon was the first to take to the track at the wheel of his new mount, the Anglo-Thai racer enjoying a trouble-free series of laps after which he spoke to Williams brand Ambassador and Sky F1 consultant Jenson Button.
©Williams
"It feels pretty good actually," he said. "You know how it is sometimes when you drive the car for the first time, it’s a little bit like ‘okay, we’ve got some work to do’.
"Today was a bit more, ‘you know what? This is a good baseline, we actually have a well-balanced car’. So the pace is the pace, but the feeling of the car is good."
Button highlighted how Albon was able to sail "flat out" through Abbey during his opening laps onboard his new car, noting that he had done the same through the fast sweep Copse Corner.
"I mean, I’m actually really happy. I feel like we’ve addressed some of the problems, it’s always a little bit of a ‘what if’, until you actually drive the real car," Albon said.
The Williams charger remained prudent however ahead of the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain on February 20.
"I don’t want to speak too soon as well, maybe we’re not as good as we think we are, but we’re going in the right direction and that’s the main thing," he added.
"We’ve got a good baseline, a good platform now to go into Bahrain with and hopefully we can build on that and start adding some downforce."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
