In a move hardly likely to inspire confidence in its fans, Williams has announced that it is retaining Roy Nissany as its official test driver.

"Roy enjoyed a successful first year with Williams," said the team this morning, "providing valuable feedback and contributing to the development of the FW43 both through his work on-track and in the simulator at Grove.

"Roy conducted himself impressively in his three Free Practice outings, at the Spanish, Italian and Bahrain Grands Prix respectively, before successfully completing a packed running programme in the Abu Dhabi post-season test.

"Alongside his test driver duties, the 26-year-old Israeli also took part in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, enjoying his best season to date in the category including taking pole position for the sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps."

"Continuing as the team's official test driver in 2021, Roy,", who finished 19th in the 2020 F2 standings, "will build upon the positive work of the previous year by once again taking part in three FP1 sessions across the season. Roy will also be behind the wheel for a day of pre-season testing ahead of the first race of 2021 and undertake an increased simulator programme back at Grove being fully immersed within the team both at the factory and trackside when possible.

"I am truly honoured to continue being part of Williams," said Nissany. "Since we started, we have made huge progress across many areas - on top of the great FP1's, we had a lot of productive work behind the scenes. While dedicating as much as I can to the team, I enhanced my skills and my capabilities as a driver. I am very keen to continue this form in 2021."

"I am pleased that Roy will continue as the team's official test driver into 2021," added team principal, Simon Roberts, "building on the good work we started last year.

"As a team, we were very happy with the contributions Roy made both through his work on-track and in the simulator at Grove, which all aided the lap time gains we were able to make with the FW43. We also enjoyed seeing Roy grow as a driver, and we have no doubt that he will continue to go from strength-to-strength this year."

Other than the FP1 sessions, Nissany took part in the end-of-season Young Driver Test, finishing 14th of the 15 drivers on duty, and 1.6s off the pace of fellow Williams driver, Jack Aitken.