{"id":68264,"date":"2021-05-07T00:25:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T00:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=68264"},"modified":"2021-05-07T01:59:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T01:59:21","slug":"how-f1-move-left-aussie-prodigy-stranded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=68264","title":{"rendered":"How F1 move left Aussie prodigy stranded"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula One's<\/a> enforced move to a condensed calendar in 2020<\/a> left many in the sport exhausted, but the flow-on effects of nine races in 11 weeks were felt far and wide.<\/p>\n

The impact was perhaps most noticeable in the sport's feeder categories, F2 and F3, especially amongst the rookies, like Australia's Calan Williams.<\/p>\n

The Western Australian's maiden F3 season ended in disappointment, with a best finish of 14th, after twice being taken out while on track for a top-10 finish.<\/p>\n

As he heads into his second season in the category, which starts this weekend in Barcelona, the 20-year-old is keen to build on the experience of his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n

"Last year, you'd have three races in a row, you'd be away from the team headquarters for three weeks, going to different circuits, and have no time to prepare," he told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

\"Calan<\/p>\n

"If you needed to work on things in the simulator, you had to do three rounds worth of preparation before you went away, which is so tough.<\/p>\n

"It made it hard for everyone to learn and improve, simply because there was no time to reflect on what happened, and then build on it."<\/p>\n

Williams has taken a noticeable step forward since the conclusion of last year, impressing in the post-season test late in 2020, and continuing his strong showings in the two pre-season tests this year, including setting the quickest time in one of the sessions at Barcelona.<\/p>\n

"To top that session by a comfortable margin was very satisfying," he explained.<\/p>\n

"We were practising qualifying runs, so I literally had one lap on the tyres and that was it.<\/p>\n

"If I made a mistake, the lap wouldn't have been any good. It was great to put that pressure on myself."<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Tyres are the big talking point in F3. Fractions of a second in qualifying can mean the difference between a top-five spot on the grid, or missing the top-20 in the 30-car field.<\/p>\n

And although fellow Australian Oscar Piastri won last year's F3 title as a rookie<\/a>, Williams says the second-year drivers definitely have an advantage.<\/p>\n

"If you look at last year, all of the second-year drivers made a huge step forward compared to 2019," he noted.<\/p>\n

"In other series, the tyres might be more forgiving and you can do plenty of laps in practice and qualifying and get yourself into a rhythm.<\/p>\n

"In F3, you can't do that. You have to be able to go out on fresh tyres, and perform over one lap.<\/p>\n

"These tyres overheat and wear out incredibly quickly. If you make a mistake on your first push lap, they don't have anywhere near the same level of grip next time around.<\/p>\n

"You've got to trust yourself to perform straight away."<\/p>\n

\"Australia's<\/p>\n

Williams will be joined this year by his mentor, Mick Kouris, who has 48 years experience in motorsport. That's going to be invaluable, with restrictions likely to prevent Williams' family travelling from Australia to follow his progress.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old has been working hard away from the car, spending time at Formula Medicine, a physical and mental training facility in Italy, in a move designed to give the Perth-born driver an edge over his rivals.<\/p>\n

Not that he's wasting time thinking about the other drivers on the grid.<\/p>\n

"It's not about the other cars. If you're in the race and you're not making mistakes, you're hitting every apex, being smooth and consistent, it doesn't matter what everyone else is doing," he said.<\/p>\n

"As soon as you start worrying about everyone else, your focus is diverted away from what you should be doing.<\/p>\n

"If you're looking in your mirrors, you could be using that energy on your own driving, so I'm more concerned about doing the best I can."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Formula One's enforced move to a condensed calendar in 2020 left many in the sport exhausted, but the flow-on effects of nine races in 11 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68266,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68264\/revisions\/68266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}