NEW OWNERS, NEW APPROACH FOR WILLIAMS
Williams returned to respectability in 2020, after two seasons cut adrift of the rest of the field. On raw qualifying pace, the Williams was actually the eighth quickest car on the grid – between 0.1-0.2s ahead of Haas and Alfa Romeo.
The team could not translate this into race results – Williams finished last in the constructors’ championship for the third consecutive year – but the fact George Russell made it into Q2 in nine of his 16 races for the team has given Williams hope it is finally back on the right track after an alarming drift in the final years of the past decade.
With regards to 2021, team boss Simon Roberts says: “Realistically, midfield isn’t really possible for us with this car and these regulations, but it would be a great year if we’re eighth, it would be OK if we’re ninth and it would be not OK if we’re 10th.”
For 2022, the team is making a big change in approach, deciding to give up building its own gearbox to buy one from Mercedes. Unlike Aston Martin, Williams will continue to make its own suspension parts.
It was a “pragmatic” decision, Roberts says, based on the fact Williams wanted to finally switch to a carbon gearbox – Williams is the last team still using aluminium – but did not have a gearbox rig to test on, and these are expensive.
“Effectively buying a complete PU assembly from Mercedes is a much simpler proposition to manage,” Roberts explains. “It allows us to move people who were involved in the gearbox on to other areas of the car to add performance, which is really important in a cost cap. And it gives us the reliability and performance we’re looking for going forwards.
“It gives us the flexibility to use the design team in a slightly different way and we need to work our way back up the grid. What we don’t want to do is make life any more difficult than it already is. As part of a rebuild and moving us forward, this is an integral part of it.”