Russell 'proud' of Williams crew for pulling all-nighter

George Russell says that he is "proud" of his Williams team for pulling an all-nighter in order to get the car built and set-up so that they could get running in Barcelona.

Williams have had a nightmare start to 2019, with the car delayed by a couple of days meaning that they made their first appearance on the circuit on Wednesday afternoon.

Buoyed by a new sponsorship deal with Rokit, the team equipped with a new livery planned to carry out a shakedown of their car, but that never happened. 

Before the problems with the production of the car were discovered, the team fancied themselves for the coming season as they begin their quest to move up the grid.

However, they will need as much running as they can manage in the second test because they effectively have two rookie drivers, with George Russell and Robert Kubica. The Pole hasn't started a race since 2010, as he sustained life changing injuries in a rally crash.

Russell said: "It’s been quite annoying watching everybody on track and obviously as a driver you just want to get out there. But it’s passed quite quickly I think because I’ve understood how much work has been going on from all of the people building this car.

"It hasn’t made me frustrated because I understand that we haven’t got in this situation on purpose, everybody is upset about it and they’re working their socks off to to make it right. So that was refreshing for me and made me quite proud of the guys and how much they’re working. They’ve been up since yesterday, 2:30 in the morning walk in all through the night to make the car ready and it’s a privilege to be a part of the team."