Williams believes Nicholas Latifi is “capable” of matching teammate Alex Albon despite his current struggles.
The Canadian has finished no higher than 16th in the first four races and is one of only two full-time drivers yet to score a point this season along with Mick Schumacher.
Latifi’s biggest low came in Saudi Arabia, where he crashed in both qualifying and the race, and he admits the main issue has been adapting to Formula 1’s new 2022 cars.
“Since Saudi, I just haven’t had a great feeling with the car, even before the crashes,” he said at Imola last weekend.
“Any driver will say when you don’t trust the car underneath you, what it is going to do, it’s going to be a very dangerous thing.
“Obviously dangerous I don’t mean in the aspect of safety, I mean in terms of the car catching you off-guard, having incidents and just not being comfortable to push to the limit.
“Even when the pace is relatively okay, or strong, it’s not necessarily that I still have the feeling like, ‘Okay, I’m happy with the way I feel’.
“I think that’s something that’ll just come with time, so, in that sense, [I’m] happy to do all the laps of a very tricky condition race, so I’ll take those positives.”
In contrast, teammate Albon has been battling on the fringes of the points in recent races, including finishing P10 in Australia.
“Obviously, Alex is clearly more comfortable with the car,” said Latifi.
“Regardless of the pace of the car, we know we’re missing downforce, we know we’re struggling with balance issues. This is clear.
“But he’s doing a better job of managing it, so I have to get to that level. For me, it is just a pure feel and confidence thing with the car.
“It’s not a driving style, [where] I’m braking too late, not carrying enough speed, this and that.
“Because, if you don’t feel the confidence of the car, you can’t begin to work on the more technical aspects when you eventually will have to work on those things, but that’ll always be the case.
“So, confidence first, and then everything else is secondary, really.”
Keep pushing, @NicholasLatifi ? pic.twitter.com/TWYFlmfFvk
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) April 22, 2022
Williams boss Jost Capito is maintaining faith in Latifi though, believing he can catch up to the pace of Albon.
“Yeah, of course, I think it’s a head game, isn’t it?” he said. “He’s capable to drive very fast and do the same lap times as Alex if he is in the right place, I’m sure.
“The cars are a bit more difficult and trickier to drive than last year’s car and he has to get his head around it and he gets the full support from the team.
“And no, of course, if you have a couple of offs, you have to fight again the confidence then, but he will get the full support of the team and we are sure he will get there.”