A week ago, Williams presented its revised livery for the 2023 Formula 1 season, including new sponsors. Now the team offers a look at the real FW45, which is doing its first test drive at Silverstone today.
The new car has a number of notable differences from its predecessor that the Grove-based team hopes to use to bounce back from last place in the constructors’ league.
The nose and front wing have been revised, with the new design being similar in shape to the geometry used by teams like Haas and AlphaTauri in 2022. In addition, Williams has also further developed the sidepods.
This seems to be a mix of different philosophies, with both Red Bull and Ferrari borrowings. Williams’ goal is to achieve better aerodynamic performance.
At the shakedown at Silverstone this Monday, Alex Albon will test the new car first, while Formula 1 rookie Logan Sargeant will then take the wheel.
Albon raves after the first ride in the FW45
“It feels really good,” is Albon’s first impression. “Sometimes you drive the car for the first time and you’re like, ‘OK, we still have work to do.’ Today it was more like: ‘You know what, that’s a good base, we actually have a well-balanced car.’ The feel of the car is good.”
But Albon admits he hasn’t ridden the FW45 on the proper 2023 tires yet, nor in the development spec it will be heading into the season with. That’s why he’s holding back a bit with his statements.
“As long as you haven’t driven the right car, there will always be a certain ‘what if’. So I don’t want to say anything too soon, maybe we’re not as good as we think we are,” explains the Williams driver .
“But we’re going in the right direction, that’s the main thing. We have a good starting point, a good platform with which we can go to Bahrain and start generating a little more downforce,” he looks ahead.
Robson explains the goals with the new car
As for the differences between the FW44 and FW45, says Dave Robson, Williams’ director of vehicle development, “It’s philosophically an evolution.” On the one hand, this is due to the rule changes for the underbody.
“The other thing that’s most obvious is a small update to the sidepods, which is an evolution of what we did for the Silverstone upgrade package .”
“At the time we were a bit constrained by the radiator layout and didn’t want to change it completely,” says Robson. “So we had the opportunity to work on it and make it a little bit different. But those are probably the most important things to look at. Philosophically, it’s an evolution.”
Williams performed best on high-speed circuits in 2022, but struggled again on circuits like Monaco and Hungary that require more downforce. This was one area the team needed to focus on, according to Robson.
“The corners with low speed and high downforce were very important for us when it came to how we set up the car. I think it’s all about the characteristics of the car and how the drivers can use the downforce , which it has. We’ve been working on that a lot.”