"This year marks a fresh start for the team," declares Claire Williams as they bid to make gains from back of field; Revised blue, red, white and black livery creates a striking FW43 look
Monday 17 February 2020 12:59, UK
Williams have revealed a dramatic new livery for a 2020 season in which they have vowed to "fight" and improve their F1 fortunes with the new FW43 car.
Significantly, after missing the start of testing last year, the new car has already hit the track at the team's filming day at Barcelona ahead of the start of full winter testing on Wednesday.
The nine-time constructors' champions endured the worst season in their illustrious history in 2019, when they finished bottom of the Constructors' Championship with a single point, and were cut off from the rest of the field for most of the campaign.
The FW43 is described an "evolution" of last year's car with the team having "carefully chosen parts of the car to develop, those that would give us the most performance for the resources we have", rather than opting for a wholesale change of concept.
The car's livery certainly does represent an overhaul: with the blue, white and black of 2019 joined by splashes of red on the sidepods and rear wing.
George Russell continues for a second season and is joined by Canadian rookie Nicholas Latifi, who steps up from reserve driver duties at the team and a runner-up finish in F2.
"This year marks a fresh start for the team," said deputy team boss Claire Williams.
"We have spent time addressing our areas of weakness and have ensured that we have the right people, structures, procedures and resource in place to deliver competitive race cars.
"We are all committed to re-building Williams and returning the team to competitiveness. As such, our 2020 campaign is about making progress. The fighting spirit is still very much alive, and this year, everyone will continue that fight until we get back to where we want to be."
Since the early years of F1's hybrid era, when they scored podiums and twice finished third in the standings, Williams have endured an inexorable slide down the order and now finished 10th and last for two consecutive seasons, scoring just eight points.
Their struggles in 2019 began during a tumultuous pre-season when they missed the start of winter testing owing to car production delays, with the FW42 then rarely going on to qualify away from the back of the field during the year.
And although the team say they have maintained a similar design concept, Williams say this has allowed them to pinpoint the FW42's area of weaknesses to ensure its successor is a stronger package.
"We have paid significant attention to understanding the problem areas of the FW42 and we have carefully chosen parts of the car to develop, those that would give us the most performance for the resources we have," said Doug McKiernan, Williams' design director.
"The main concept behind the FW43 is that it is a continuous development of the FW42, with no fundamental concept changes to the layout. The most important indicator that we are on the right path will be the level of correlation we have between the tool kit we use to design the car and what the track data is telling us.
"There has been a healthy development rate in the wind tunnel, and we have found reasonable improvements in the cooling efficiency. The team has addressed the mechanical issues that affected it in 2019, these include the brakes and the overall weight of the car. We have made some good progress across these areas and will continue to focus on them during the season."
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