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Coming off the disappointing
performance across the Spanish Grand Prix weekend the Williams Racing Team
has been questioned as to how the team would turn their season around,
especially after such a promising start.
Williams has only scored a single point so far in the 2023 season, which has
being below that which the team scored in 2022, but despite this lack of
points the team has clearly improved in regard to other indicators such as
that of each team’s fastest lap during a race weekend. Williams have reduce
their deficit to the leading teams times by 0.74 seconds over an average 90s
lap compared to that achieved in 2022. In the races covering the Australian
to the Monaco GPs, Williams was between the seventh and eighth-fastest team.
Prior to the Spanish race this was an encouraging start to the 2023 season
for the team.
But then the team would move to the traditional Circuit de Catalunya and it
was at this race that the team was exposed in terms of the lack of
performance of its FW45, in particular its lack of downforce.
For team driver Alex Albon the Spanish race he would see him struggle across
the weekend being at the bottom of the times and even with an improved
performance in the race this lack of performance from the FW45 at this more
representative circuit was brought to everyone's attention. It raised the
question of whether or not Williams was in fact the slowest team despite
their performances in the opening series of races.
Alex would comment on this by saying after the Spanish event: “I’m happy
with myself. I feel like we did a good job. That’s where we are.
“We’ve done a few races now where the tracks have been a bit more, how can I
say it, characterful - street tracks and unique tracks.
“You come here to Barcelona and it’s a proper racetrack and it exposes us a
little bit.
“It’s no secret, we’ve been saying it more than anyone else, we’re still the
10th-quickest car.
“This weekend kind of showed that. We’ve got some upgrades coming, hopefully
sooner rather than later. Hopefully, once we get that increased performance,
we can fight in the midfield a bit more again like we were more at the start
of the year.”
Albon added that a lot of his performances in the opening series of races
came from his confidence in the tracks that he was racing on.
He continued: “We were on unique street tracks with characteristics where
with confidence and driving, you can do a little bit.
“Around here, where every team’s done a million laps and every driver’s done
a million laps, it’s very hard to break the trend and outperform it.
“It’s quite a tricky track and most of the teams have designed their cars
around this place so it looks optimised, and it is.
“You look at qualifying and how close the whole pack is, and we were just
kind of a step below there.
“We need some upgrades and it’ll come and until then it’s just about
maximising the car we’ve got.”
But Williams has been faced with the challenge of getting the best from
their car while other teams are bringing upgrades to their cars seeing the
team drop even further back. This was highlighted by the recent image of the
underside of the FW45 where it was shown to be well behind that being run by
other teams such as Red Bull. Such was the significance of this disparity
between Williams and other teams it would see Team Principal James Vowles
make comment on it acknowledging the lack of detail.
But it has been also acknowledged that Williams is well behind their
competitors in regard to other aspects beyond just the car but also the
infrastructure that is available to Williams. Williams' Head of Vehicle
Performance Dave Robson spoke of the plan that Vowles has put in place but
said that the timescales involved are probably longer than anticipated.
Robson said: "I'm completely confident in what he (Vowles) is doing. The
timescales involved in actually seeing the real progress, it may take us
beyond '24, perhaps.
"There's quite a lot of rebuilding and restructuring, and getting his
experience of what state-of-the-art genuinely looks like has been quite
enlightening.
"But it does mean there's a lot to do and probably more to do than we
thought there was. So, there's a lot to do but he's set in motion all of the
right things, but there's a gestation period to all of that."
As for how the challenge between achieving improvements in the performance
of this years car and improving the behind the scenes areas of the company
that will see improvements in later years it is one that the team
acknowledges will be a difficult one. The team has admitted that they are
focusing on 2024 but they also know that the situation with the current car
makes it necessary for the team to bring improvements to the FW45.
In respect of this challenge Robson said: "There's a bit of both.
"Those two things are not quite one and the same but to a certain extent
they are, in that it's still just about understanding the subtleties of
where the car is weak and making sure that at least what we do bring for the
rest of this year does what we expect it to and is still helpful for the
bigger changes that will come next year."
But even with a season that may not see the team achieve significant
improvements in results it will not be a lost season as the team is still
gaining a valuable understanding of the current car.
Robson added: "I think it still just comes back to the learning. That's
still the most important thing.
"It's understanding the subtleties that you can get with some of the corners
as to why the car doesn't behave as the drivers would like it to, and then
taking that back to base and understanding what it is we need to do to make
it work.
"I think we've got a reasonably good idea, but, obviously, making it happen
is not easy."
So it would seem that Williams will face the remaining races in 2023 with
limited opportunities to improve the performance of their current FW45, with
hopefully an upgrade being brought for the British Grand Prix, but it is
really going to be very much the case of being realistic in their
expectations in terms of results. There will still be those tracks where the
FW45 will be far better suited and with the upgrades both Alex and Logan
should be able to return to being more a midfield prospect.
But there are those tracks where the FW45 even with their upgrades could
still be the slowest car when one takes into account that the majority of
teams will have updated their cars as well. Alex spoke of maximising the car
prior to any upgrades but it will most likely remain that way for the rest
of the season. |
