Bouncing back from rock bottom
The Williams FW42 was late, off the pace, and produced the worst season in the illustrious team’s history in terms of deficit to the front. Its sole point, courtesy of Robert Kubica’s 10th place in July’s German Grand Prix, came in a chaotic race after both Alfa Romeos were penalised. It was a disastrous year. As deputy team principal Claire Williams puts it: “It can’t happen again.”
Williams has certainly responded. The result was the departure of chief technical officer Paddy
Lowe and a rigorous review that has led to widespread changes, including an improved system to track the design and manufacturing of all components. This is crucial not just because of the late start, but also the parts shortages that flared up after on-track misfortune, which led to Kubica’s car being retired in Russia after Russell crashed out with a wheel-retainer problem.
This left the team to make the best of a limited car, which never latched onto the back of the midfield.
“The progress of the pace relative to the back of the midfield has been a little bit disappointing,” says principal engineer
Dave Robson.
“We hoped that, by the middle of the season, we’d be regularly racing the lower midfield teams. We’ve occasionally beaten one of the others on merit, but more frequently when they’ve had some misfortune or made a mistake, but in terms of pure pace we hoped we would recover more quickly.
“But the big thing for us is what we’ve learned [for the future], all the aerodynamic work we’ve done. In an academic sense, it all looks quite good. We’ve gathered lots of data and been able to improve the way we use the windtunnel and CFD.”
Aero development is the key challenge, given the team’s uncompetitiveness was down to a downforce deficit. The attitude is right, and the race team extracted what it could from a limited package (its pitstops were among the best, for example), but the real test of the squad’s soul-searching will be if it can start next season at least at the back of the midfield, not off it.
“It was a disastrous year. As deputy team principal Claire Williams puts it, ‘It can’t happen again’ ”