Williams to run new floor in FP3

© XPB 

Williams will run its new floor for the first time in final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix after its arrival overnight.

The team confirmed during its pre-race preview that it would have a new floor in Hungary, but it was not ready in time for use during Friday practice. Head of performance engineering Rob Smedley says the new floor will run in FP3 this morning as Williams analyses the performance gain.

"We’ve got quite a big floor upgrade coming, so we’ll be testing that in FP3 and hopefully it moves us forward a little more," Smedley said. "We also completed a number of installation laps on the front wings to look at some very specific data collection. Aside from that we’ve stayed with the old specification, because we wanted to concentrate on the suspension work."

While McLaren was the fourth quickest team - occupying seventh and eighth in both Friday sessions - behind Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, Smedley expects Williams to move up on Saturday.

"When we’ve had the car in the correct configuration we’ve been reasonable, especially on the long runs which were good, so that’s a definite positive for us. We’re still not quite where we need to be, but I think we’re back to our normal position behind the top three teams."

Valtteri Bottas will evaluate the new floor, with only one available. Bottas will race the update if it works as expected, with a second floor due in Germany next week for Felipe Massa's car.

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