Williams Team Launches FW43 In Online Reveal

The Williams F1 team had a lackluster 2019 championship season as they only managed to bag a single world championship point but are hopeful of reversing their fortune with their newly-launched FW43.

The team describes the car as an evolution of the predecessor, the FW42.

The FW43 car comes with heavy branding from the ROKiT title sponsors that Williams is working with.

Doug McKiernan, the Design Director, said improvements the FW43 made were because the team had studied problem areas the FW42 had shown and made changes according to their budget.

McKiernan said the new car had no fundamental changes to its overall layout, and they would know if they are on the right path once they analyzed the track data to see how it correlates to the tool kit they used to design the FW43.

According to Doug, there are some areas that have seen improved results, and these would be the key areas to work on during the upcoming season.

He added that the FW43 had improved cooling efficiency and performed better in the wind tunnel. The mechanical problems relating to the brakes and weight of the car had been worked on, as well.

Adam Carter, the chief engineer, said the decision to retain the principal architecture of the FW42 meant fewer resources were used to create an entire concept. Those resources were given to the design team to optimize their work.

Carter said it would be nice to start seeing the hard work put into the FW43 pay off.

He also said that they would measure the car’s performance against their peers even as the pre-season tests and the race season loom near.

During last year’s pre-season test, the Williams team experienced a lot of kinds of failures as they could not get their car ready for filming day or for the start of the pre-season tests.

Keeping this in mind, the Williams team is keen on having a smooth rollout process. They have already passed their crash tests in their first tryouts.

The FW43 was launched online and will have its inaugural public outing in Barcelona on Wednesday during testing.

Nicholas Latifi and George Russell will evenly split the responsibility of testing the FW43 in Barcelona over a period of six days.

They are the lead driver team for the 2020 Formula 1 championship season.