Williams Set To Focus On 2024 Car

At a time where the Williams racing team are no longer the official back markers having struggled so often and so helplessly in the past, it ought to be considered the progress that the famous racing marquee have made is quite exciting.

Some might call it the progress demonstrated by the machine while others might consider the resilient and confident Alex Albon as the main force behind the turnaround, and yet, there’ll be some of us who’ll club the two together for the massive improvement that’s on display.

Regardless, what makes perfect sense is to consider the fact that the team isn’t here to be some lame midfielder; the constant endeavour of the iconic Formula 1 marquee is to battle hard in each Grand Prix and make considerable strides towards (the already evident) improvement.

This isn’t some bland-speak; the brilliant performance demonstrated by Albon at the Montreal-bound Canadian Grand Prix, wherein he garnered a hard-fought P7 (hence, 6 points on the whole) was an avid instance of Williams being anything but some insipid machine.

That Williams’s great result at Canada was no flash in the pan moment was evident thanks to Alex Albon finishing once again among vital points given his P8 at the Silverstone.

Currently standing on seventh on the Constructor’s rankings, Williams have outperformed the troika of Alfa Romeo, Haas and the ailing Alpha Tauri. Which is perhaps why the team thinks that the time is right to get going on the next season’s car and what possibilities might the team explore with the new design.

Ahead of the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, the head of vehicle performance at Williams, Mr. Dave Robson highlighted the present perspectives on the FW45 and what might the FW46 stand to achieve:

“I think most of what was in the pipeline, we’ve now delivered. There was the front wing we brought to Silverstone and we’ll see that again in Spa. But beyond that, probably just some small things if they come through the wind tunnel and we can make them quite quickly.”

And when asked about whether this was the right time to begin focusing on the next year’s Formula 1 car, the following is what Mr. Robson had to add:

“Otherwise, it’s now about the right time to start focusing on next year’s car. And also just continuing to understand what we’ve got now, run what we’ve got through a few different types of circuit and just kind of hone our set-up around it and get the drivers to push the most out of it.”

That told, discussing on the matter of the upgrades that were already carried on the Williams car as seen at the Canadian Grand Prix, Mr. Robson also elucidated whether they’ve contributed in terms of maximum potential of the car. Here’s what he would add:

“It improved the downforce delivery and improved a few of the characteristics, but primarily it was just more downforce. But really we haven’t run it at a max downforce circuit yet. This weekend is probably the first time we will really see it in that configuration.”