Williams has presented its new design for the 2022 Formula 1 season and wants to move away from the bottom of the table with Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi
Williams has been waiting for this moment for three years: the new Formula 1 era has arrived and with it, finally, the chance to move away from the bottom of the table into which they had manoeuvred themselves in recent years. With the new FW44, they want to leave the legacy behind them and at least move back into the midfield.
Fittingly, Williams has thrown on a new colour dress, which the racing team had already announced in a video with the two drivers Nicholas Latifi and Alexander Albon.
However, a spectacular new design failed to materialise, instead the Williams is almost entirely in blue, with some red accents. “The design is based on the branding process we did last year. Especially in terms of the different shades of blue, with the diamond scheme that is also represented in our brand,” said team principal Jost Capito.
Meanwhile, the red accents are meant to represent the home country of Great Britain: “We are a proud, British team. That’s why we have red splashes of colour on the car,” Capito said. “I think it looks like a fast race car,” adds Albon.
Williams already announced battery manufacturer Duracell as its new sponsor yesterday, Monday, and they will feature prominently on the car, among other things. Apart from that, the car seems to be rather sparsely equipped with stickers.
That is also the only thing that can be said about the car, because as with Red Bull, only a show car was shown at Williams. Officially, the team had only announced the presentation as a “season launch”.
VW success team now at Williams
While the name Williams is still omnipresent, the team no longer has much in common with the once most successful racing team in Formula 1 history. The Williams family has completely withdrawn and, with team founder Frank, has also lost the face of the racing team in the past year.
New names are now trying to revive the team’s former glory. First and foremost is team boss Jost Capito, who has reunited his successful Volkswagen team from the World Rally Championship.
With Capito, technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison, sports director Sven Smeets and technical advisor Willy Rampf, a quartet that dominated the World Rally Championship a few years ago leads Williams. To do the same with Williams, however, will be infinitely more difficult.
Get rid of the red lantern
Because the racing team has been left behind by the competition in recent years. At the beginning of the new millennium, Williams was still the most successful Formula 1 racing team of all time, but it was unable to keep up with the new powers around Mercedes or Red Bull, either financially or in terms of infrastructure.
After a brief upswing under main sponsor Martini, Williams was left with the red lantern for years: between 2018 and 2020, they finished last three times in a row and were never really able to recover from the fact that the bolide for 2019 was finished too late and left without a chance.
They carried that mortgage around with them in 2020 and 2021, even though they showed a clear upward trend the previous year, finishing eighth in the WRC with 23 points.
Alexander Albon replaces George Russell
However, the face of promotion is gone: George Russell had made a lasting impression with his strong performances and now sits in the world champion car of Mercedes. Williams would have liked to keep the Briton in the team, but did not want to put any obstacles in his career path.
Instead, Alexander Albon now sits alongside Nicholas Latifi, who remains with the team for a third year and now meets his old team-mate from Formula 2, against whom he clearly lost out in 2018: Albon scored 212 points, Latifi 91.
The signing of the Thai had caused quite a bit of discussion. Mercedes had tried to bring Formula E champion Nyck de Vries to Williams, but instead the team opted for Red Bull man Albon, who, curiously, is now driving with a Mercedes engine in the rear.
Test in Barcelona as first hint
Whether Williams will really be able to move up into the midfield remains to be seen. The test in Barcelona will be important for that first. “Every time you go out on track with a new car, the first thing is to make sure the reliability is right,” says Latifi.
“So in Barcelona it’s not so much about performance, it’s about first understanding what these new rules and this new car mean,” the Canadian said. “We need to understand the aero platform because that’s one of the biggest changes with this generation of car. And it’s about doing as many laps as possible. “
“At the second test in Bahrain, we will then also approach the performance and explore the limit to prepare for the first race weekend.”
The “real” Williams is due to take to the track for the first time this afternoon in Silverstone.
