Russell circles Imola as best opportunity for points

George Russell believes the best chance for Williams to score points in Formula 1 this season will be at Italy's third race on the calendar - Imola.

Williams is the only team not to score a point so far this year despite a much-improved car compared to last year's challenger, although has twice come close with Nicholas Latifi finishing 11th in the season-opener Austria and at Monza on Sunday.

With what Russel has described as a "surprising amount of downforce" on the car, he has circled F1's first visit to Imola for 14 years at the end of October as the best chance for the team to finally break its points duck.

"I think Imola could be an interesting one for us," he said.

"Especially if we can get a big Saturday under our belts. There is the big long straight that we can take advantage of the DRS in qualifying which reduces the drag for everybody and brings us all a bit closer together, and then it is very fast and you need a decent amount of downforce.

"People probably don't actually know but we have a surprising amount of downforce, we are just getting pretty punished down the straights. I think that will be a good opportunity."

Assessing other possible new circuits, Russell feels the second race at Bahrain, on its outer track where laps are estimated to be around 55 seconds, may prove difficult.

"I think the Bahrain short track could be quite a struggle for us," said the British driver.

"I think Renault are going to be punchy around there with the efficiency of their car. We could see some surprises there."

Following the departure of the Williams family from F1, the team has confirmed this week that Simon Roberts is to serve as interim team principal.

Roberts, formerly of McLaren and Force India, will take charge of his first race at this weekend's Tuscan Grand Prix.

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