2021 Could Williams turn things around?

The Williams Racing Team had suffered several years of disappointing performances, with the 2019 and 2020 seasons seeing the team finish last in the Constructors championship, such that many including myself wondered if this trend was ever going to end. But we would look forward to the 2021 Formula One season with much anticipation as so much had changed at the end of the 2020 season most notable being the departure of the Williams family from the management of the team.

For Williams Racing 2021 would be the first full Formula One season under new owners Dorilton Capital and also with new CEO Jost Capito.

It was obvious right from the time of his arrival that Capito was prepared to make significant changes setting up a process of reviewing the teams existing operations and identifying areas to improve. One of the most significant areas that he was to address was to allow for a clearly defined leadership structure within the team. Capito described this by saying: “one leadership, under somebody who has a lot of motorsport experience in all kinds of engineering, rather than car engineering or car development.”

So early on in the 2021 season we would see Francois-Xavier Demaison join the team as Technical Director. There had also been the indications of the early stages of restructuring the team to hopefully see it make progress during the season ahead.

But despite these encouraging changes there were indications that the 2020 FW43B updated to be the 2021 FW43B would still suffer as a result of its flawed aerodynamic concept. Such that there was doubts as to whether the car would allow the team to improve over the course of the 2021 season. But even with these concerns the team would set about and implement plans to continue with a gradual process of developing the FW43B looking towards better performances late in the season.

So the beginning of the season would see little success from the team despite developments for the FW43B and would not be until the Hungarian Grand Prix where despite one of their worst qualifying performances the team was able to finish with a double points scoring result seeing them move ahead of their main competition Alfa Romeo and Haas. The race would see Nicholas Latifi and George Russell finish in seventh and eighth positions.

The next race would see the team achieve its first podium in four years as well as another double points scoring result at the shortened Belgian Grand Prix. Following on from these results were further points scoring results in the Dutch and Italian Grand Prix. In addition to this the other promising sign was the progressions out of the Q1 qualifying period were becoming more frequent.

The team would go on to finish eighth in the Constructors’ Championship with 23 points, with this been the strongest season since 2017. As for how you would rate this performance for those inside the team it was very much the case of they were well ahead of where the team expected to be at seasons end.

Capito would comment on the season with Motorsport Week saying: “I would say from the development of the team, it was as I hoped for and expected.

“From the points and the positions, it has exceeded the expectations, from the very little development that was possible from last year to this year and under the Covid circumstances, it was even more difficult.

“Then finishing eighth, it’s overachieving our objectives from the beginning of the season.

“Personal highlights are Budapest, the first point-score after a long time for the team, and then the podium in Spa.

“These were also key moments for the team to find the trust back, find the motivation back, and to push even harder to prove that if we do courageous decisions, they can pay off.

“We don’t have to wait until other decisions and then follow, we are good enough to do our own decisions, and they can be good. I think those two races have boosted the team’s self-confidence.”

Even with the improved performance there were quite a few lost opportunities during the season where even more point scoring results were achievable. An eighth in the first race at the Red Bull Ring was lost as a result of an pneumatic pressure issue which forced Russell to retire followed by the loss of a tenth place finish after a late battle against Fernando Alonso in the second Red Bull Ring race.

On top of this was a noticeable loss of performance in the later races of the season which saw both Williams cars finish well outside the points as well as seeing both drivers Russell and Latifi suffer several DNF's late in the season.

Coming from this Capito even though he was satisfied with the teams performances in the 2021 season he stressed that there was more work to be done.

Capito said: “I am satisfied with where the team is now, with the structure we have in place, with the processes we have in place.

“It’s not all done, it’s by far not all done. But as we know, to get a team back to the top, it takes a longer time.

“You can’t have miracles, it’s hard work, dedication, it’s teamwork and a big team effort.

“It’s not done in one year but I believe we are on track and we’ve established a mentality of change so that change is accepted, that people try to get better every day. I think that mentality will help us to move forward.”

2021 was still very much a season of ups and downs for the Williams Racing Team despite having moved from the bottom of the Constructors Championship order.

Capito added: “There were really high highs and very low lows. We went through a lot of various emotions for the team throughout the season.”

“When we started to have 11th position, and we saw that we can race with some cars in the midfield, of course it gives a boost.

“You improve more if you’re in the position that you can fight with other cars and race others – and this is also what we found with race drivers: they’ve got a completely different motivation if they’re just running around at the back of the field or if they can be in a fight.”

“If you are in the position to take the points then if you can’t take them then you haven’t done your job. But as we were in the position to take the points, and finish in the points with both cars, then we started saying, ‘OK, can we do more?’”

But 2021 would not totally be a year of memorable results for the team. At the end of November, its founder, Sir Frank Williams, died at the age of 79, sparking an outpouring of tributes from the F1 world. He had been one of motorsport’s most influential and important figures, battling adversity to take his team into a multi-championship winner.

For Williams the main driving force behind their success was to come from their soon to depart driver George Russell.

Russell's qualifying efforts were certainly a major incentive for the team placing his car in a position where in race s a points result was certainly achievable. The most notable of these been his second in Spa and third at Sochi.

In regard to the 2021 season Russell commented: “We’ve finished P10 in the championship three years in a row, so to finish P8 with more points on the board this year than the last three combined is a massive achievement. Hopefully it catapults them to even more success next year.”

For team-mate Nicholas Latifi his 2021 season was far more difficult despite securing points in Hungary. On numerous occasions he would struggle to match the pace of Russell but there were those moments where he did put in improved performances but they were overall far too rare.

Latifi would comment on his season: "The way we’re operating as a team is definitely much better. We’ve been taking more risks at various points, which has been shown by some of the good performances. There’s only so much you can do with the pace of the car we have, so we’re just trying to lay the foundations on that front, so when we do have a more competitive car and competitive package we’ll be able to capitalise on it.”

As the Williams Racing Team prepares for the start of the 2022 season there is certainly a resolve within the team that they will maintain and improve on their 2021 performances. On those occasions where the team was able to put everything together they have certainly shown that better days for the team may be within reach.

In 2022 Latifi will be joined by experienced Alex Albon, and with significant changes to the rules 2022 may offer an opportunity for Williams it’s the improve on their 2021 progress and put those years of disappointment well and truly behind them.