Williams Team Principal James Vowles says that people shouldn’t be surprised by the lack of detail on the floor of the FW45 Formula 1 car.
At the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend, imagery of underside of the car was taken after Logan Sargeant crashed out of the final practice session.
The photos were directly compared to those taken one week prior in Monaco when the Red Bull and Mercedes challengers were hoisted into the air.
Many noted the lack of detail in Williams’ floor compared to its rivals – and while Vowles asserts that the pictures were somewhat deceptive, he highlighted that its lack of detail shouldn’t come as a surprise given its place in the pecking order.
“There were photos taken of our floor this weekend after Logan went off in FP3,” Vowles said. “Obviously, those have been compared to photography taken by our competitors just a few weeks ago.
“I think one thing to point out that’s a little bit deceptive, what happened here is it was very focused on that rear diffuser ramp, unlike the other photos that perhaps focus more on the front of the floor and the mid-floor where you can actually, within the regulations, have more detail.
“All that said and done though, we are clearly lacking detail compared to our competitors. But you wouldn’t have needed [to see] the underside of the floor to know that.
“You can see that from lap times. That’s fundamentally a feature of balance characteristics and how the car is performing and downforce as well.”
Red Bull’s floor generated much interest as it has dominated the opening rounds of the 2023 campaign.
But Vowles insists that copying Red Bull’s design and attaching it to Williams’ chassis won’t benefit the car’s pace.
“Understanding what you’re competitors do by giving an image of it and simply copying it won’t help you,” he said.
“It may give you an instantaneous leg up and understanding of where you should be moving forward, but if you don’t understand the science and the reasons behind it, the flow dynamics, you’ll just have a moment in time rather than an idea of how to consistently develop to become not just as good as them, but better.
“Furthermore, whatever you see from a competitor is at least six to eight weeks out of date and where they are now is further forward.
“So the clues behind it all, the key behind it all, is actually understanding why have they developed the floor in the way they have, what can we learn from it and apply it to where we are today to advance our learning and understanding.
“That is going on all of the time. But what you can’t do is go away for some deep-rooted methods and systems that you need to actually understand how to generate downforce in an efficient manner for the car that you have.
“Our prioritisation is to learn from others where you need to, but make sure we carry on developing on our build cycle that we know will develop into a faster and faster car.”
