Williams says it has not adopted any fundamental concept changes for its 2020 Formula 1 car, the FW43, outlining that it is an evolution of its predecessor.
Williams has endured a troubled period in Formula 1 and last year finished adrift of the pack at the foot of the Constructors’ Championship, scoring just a single point.
It also finished last in 2018, having classified as high as third during the opening two years of the hybrid era across 2014/15.
Williams released renders of its FW43 on Monday morning, ahead of the start of pre-season testing on Wednesday, and explained the decision to take an evolutionary approach.
“The team at the factory have been working incredibly hard on the development of the car for the 2020 season,” said Design Director Doug McKiernan.
“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.
“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.”
Adam Carter, Chief Engineer, added: “The decision to retain some of the core architecture of the FW42 means there has been less resource invested in developing new concepts, which in turn has rewarded the design team with greater bandwidth to optimise their work, evident in both packaging and component detail.
“By preserving some key parameters, it has allowed for an uninterrupted development programme within [the] aerodynamics
[department]
in order to maximise the efficiency of the resources.“As we head towards the pre-season tests and then onto the race season, the most important measure will be the progress relative to our peers, along with our intention of continuing our recent record of reliability.”
