Nissany to drive in F1 practice sessions for Williams

2020 F1 season

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Williams has appointed Roy Nissany as its official test driver for the 2020 F1 season.

The 25-year-old will take part in three practice sessions for the team during race weekends and also drive one rookie test day.

Nissany tested for Williams at Yas Marina following the end of last season. He lapped over three-and-a-half seconds off the pace of the team’s new driver for 2020, Nicholas Latifi.

The Williams will carry the logos of Israel Start-up at the three rounds where Nissany will drive for the team. He will be the second Isreali driver to participate in an F1 weekend. The previous was his father Chanoch, who did a single practice session for Minardi at the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Nissany described his appointment as “a landmark for motorsport in Israel.”

“When I tested for the team in Abu Dhabi in December, I instantly felt comfortable in the car and part of the team,” he said. “The experience that I will gain this year, immersing myself with Williams will prove invaluable and I’m looking forward to getting started, both on and off the track.”

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Chanoch Nissany, Minardi, Hungaroring, 2005
Nissany’s father Chanoch had a practice run with Minardi
His strongest career result to date came in the now-defunct Formula V8 3.5 championship, formerly known as Formula Renault 3.5. Nissany finished fourth in the 2016 championship, then slipped to fifth the following year.

Nissany moved to Formula 2 with Campos in 2018 and ended the year 22nd in the standings with a single point. He sat out the 2019 campaign due to injury, but will return to the series this year having tested for Trident at Yas Marina last month.

“Roy demonstrated his capabilities driving in the post-season Abu Dhabi test last year and we were extremely impressed with what he could do in a short space of time,” said deputy team principal Claire Williams. “He is a hard-working individual who we are excited to be working with this year.”

Nissany joins the team’s development drivers Dan Ticktum, who will also race in F2 this year, and W Series champion Jamie Chadwick.

View the current list of 2020 F1 drivers and teams

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2020 F1 season

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25 comments on “Nissany to drive in F1 practice sessions for Williams”

  1. Just when you thought Williams couldn’t get any lower…

    1. Why? Is he bad? Not joking, I genuinely have no idea who he is.

      1. Terrible, like yuji idé terrible.

  2. Don’t you need to have a certain amount of license points to do practice runs? Sean gelael certain has a better cv than Nissany and that says alot of Roy’s abilities

    1. YEah, I guess the money went towards smoothing that one over @marussi.

      I guess someone has to pay the bills both at the FIA and at the back of the grid teams, right.

  3. All about that do-re-mi

  4. Williams never fails to disappoint these times.

  5. This is surely good news. It shows that Williams are so confident in their car development that they don’t even need those extra practice sessions?

  6. My first impression was oh dear. But Williams needs the financial backing from somewhere. Nissany isn’t fast enough to do proper tests but I think that’s not the main priority for Williams. They need the money and they need a lot of it. I really hope they will cope this and get their head in the game like Mclaren. They ditched Honda but I don’t know what Williams should do to be back on track.

  7. I’ve never heard of Roy Nissany, but seeing the sentiment of the comments above, it does not give me a good feeling for Williams’ state in 2020. I wonder if the 107% rule is likely to factor in once the cars hit the tarmac.

    1. No 107% in free practice, he can go as slow as he likes

      1. @bernasaurus – I meant the car will be in that poor shape (design, and now even weekend setup) that it might be even worse in 2020 than 2019.

        1. Luis Miguel Martínez
          16th January 2020, 23:58

          Honestly, i have never thought that Williams’ 2020 situation would be any better than 2019’s

  8. The number of drivers more deserving must be in hundreds. But I guess if they need the cash they need the cash. I feel for whomever has to write these quotes for the press releases.

  9. Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
    15th January 2020, 14:44

    I feel like it’s such a missed opportunity from a marketing point of view to give your free practice sessions to a random rich kid from Israel instead of Chadwick. Like honestly having the first champion of the W Series in F1 practice sessions would give Williams an insane amount of media attention. Also Nissany is just completely terrible.

    1. Jamie Chadwick doesn’t have the superlicense points to do free practice yet.

      1. How on Earth Suzie Wollf got a free practice outing? Superlicense points requirement was already there, no?

    2. Suppliers don’t accept brownie points as payment.

  10. I don’t like how ominous this sounds:

    The previous was his father Chanoch, who did a single practice session for Minardi at the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix.

    It worries me that history is repeating, as 2005 was Minardi’s last season in F1…

    1. Let’s just hope it won’t be that bad for Williams @eurobrun

  11. Very disappointing. No need for this signing as Chadwick could have been both test and development driver. As Nissany had last season out of F2 due to injury he should have another season there. Money talks I guess.

  12. So I guess Chadwick is destined for zero actual mileage now. Too bad, as I actually think her being associated with Williams is hurting her career now.

    Roy Nissany is definitely in the pay driver league, but not the same league as his father. Chanoch was 13 seconds off the pace in his practice session, while Roy has won 4 actual races in Formula Renault 3.5, finishing ahead of his teammate Both years.

    1. True, although the quality of the grid in those seasons was pretty lacklustre. I mean, Louis Delétraz nearly won the title in 2016. Yet, three seasons into his Formula 2 career, and he hasn’t won a single race. Drivers in the Formula V8 3.5 Series those years were flattered by the fact that there was no star driver on the grid; making them all look more competent than they actually were.

  13. wasn’t he 6 seconds of his teammates pace in his Williams test last season? Williams need to make the most of those valuable practise sessions. oh well williams must already know they will be more than 1 second behind the next worst car this season. they have lost a bunch of sponsors like orlen and Rexona, so they need millionaire’s pay driver cash.

  14. deputy team principal Claire Williams. “[…]we are excited to be […]”

    Indeeed. Every time one of these hopefuls announce a financially lucrative deal, they use the term “exciting”.
    Doesn’t matter how awful or hopeless the prospective subject is, it’s always “exciting”.
    Yes, we are all excited!

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