Williams FW45 to address FW44 weaknesses

With the launch of the 2023 livery the discussions now move to the Williams Racing 2023 challenger the FW45. After a disappointing 2022 Formula One season that saw the team finish last in the constructors’ championship so much of their 2023 fortunes will come down to the performance of the FW45.

It was announced by the team that the new FW45 would complete a shakedown at Silverstone on 13th February with another filming day planned in Bahrain prior to pre-season test in Bahrain commencing on the February 23rd.

Team driver Alex Albon has spoken of how the team is well aware of the issues that the 2022 FW44 had.

Alex said: "There were clear weaknesses in the car. It's not just me, also Nicky last year, Logan drove the car as well. There were pretty obvious weaknesses in the car.

“I can say that low speed front-locking was quite a big problem for us last year, and we're trying to get around that and understand why it was so difficult. So areas like that there's a common goal to improve the car.

“Everyone's involved in the development and trying to address the weaknesses we had.”

At the 2023 livery launch Williams Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson spoke of the specifics of what the team was attempting to achieve in trying to find how to improve the low-speed performance of the 2023 car.

Robson said: “The low speed, high downforce corners were certainly important to us in terms of how we spec the car out.

“I think a lot of that is about its characteristics and how the drivers can utilise the downforce it does have. We've done a lot of work on that. We set some targets.

“It's difficult to sort of put a lap time target on something like that, and therefore trading it against just basic downforce and drag can be difficult. But we think we set some good targets.

“We think we've seen some good progress when we take the aero map data from the wind tunnel and run it through the simulator with the drivers. But we'll have to see. We certainly need to make some improvements there and I'd like to think we've done just that.”

As for the question of whether the FW45 will carry over the design philosophy of the FW44 Robson said: “It’s philosophically an evolution. Obviously the regulation changes around the floor dominate some of it, and then I think the other thing that you’ll find that is most obvious is a bit of an update to the sidepod package, which is an evolution of what we did for the Silverstone upgrade package.

“We were a bit constrained then by the radiator layout and not wanting to completely change that. So we’ve had an opportunity to work on that and lay things out a little bit differently.

“They’re probably the main visible things. But, philosophically, it’s an evolution.”

As for the build of the FW45 Robson added: “The car build is in progress and it’s going well.

“Quite large chunks of the car’s systems have been tested independently, and now the whole car is coming together.

“In terms of the differences to the FW44, then the whole car is an evolution in terms of its physical appearance.

“There have obviously been changes to the regs but probably the most obvious change from last year is around the sidepod shape, which is something we started to focus on part way through last year with the Silverstone package.

“But we couldn’t do the changes we really wanted to, where the actual coolers were. Now we have an opportunity to rework that, so that’s probably the most obvious, visible difference.”

As to how much performance the team has been able to gain in the FW45, Robson added: “It’s difficult to know exactly how much because it really depends on how that stands up relative to everyone else.

“The floor regulation changes did set us back – it will set everyone back – but we’re quite pleased with how we have reacted to that.

“But overall, the car is a step forward. We’ve seen in the simulator that we’ve started to work quite well on some of the issues that were fairly stand out to the drivers last year.

“So we’re hopeful that will materialise on track and we will quite quickly turn that into lap time, so that’s all very promising.

“It’s been a big effort by everyone, a huge amount of effort throughout the company.

“Everything has gone pretty well in the wind tunnel, with CFD, and now the manufacturing team is just finishing off getting the car ready.

“So we’ll find out in a few weeks’ time, how much it’s all paid off.”