2024 Williams Racing F1 Team

[Xyz22]

Episode 3 of the BBC podcast Back at Base contains a few interesting bits of information:

- after a few late weight increases, they started 2023 with a significantly overweight car
- they had expected to be on target, but hadn't kept a firm enough grasp on mass during the design process
- Dave Worner led a project to take at least 10kg out of the 2023 car, which resulted in more fundamental changes for 2024:

So we realised through incoming intel from other teams should we say that our chassis was a bit of a porker. So we focused on the 2024 chassis. That was the first thing we started looking at. We ring fence resource within design to start looking at designing and making that chassis in a completely different way to any way that Williams had ever done before with a view to taking many, many kilos out of it more than the target 10 kilos that we've tried to save in 2023.

Vowles adds:

It was brought to my attention that the work that we're asking the organisation to do is the equivalent of three years worth of evolutionary jump but to be completed in just six months.

I think James is approaching this the right way.

[f1isgood]

Episode 3 of the BBC podcast Back at Base contains a few interesting bits of information:

- after a few late weight increases, they started 2023 with a significantly overweight car
- they had expected to be on target, but hadn't kept a firm enough grasp on mass during the design process
- Dave Worner led a project to take at least 10kg out of the 2023 car, which resulted in more fundamental changes for 2024:

So we realised through incoming intel from other teams should we say that our chassis was a bit of a porker. So we focused on the 2024 chassis. That was the first thing we started looking at. We ring fence resource within design to start looking at designing and making that chassis in a completely different way to any way that Williams had ever done before with a view to taking many, many kilos out of it more than the target 10 kilos that we've tried to save in 2023.

Vowles adds:

It was brought to my attention that the work that we're asking the organisation to do is the equivalent of three years worth of evolutionary jump but to be completed in just six months.

I think James is approaching this the right way.

I think the biggest difference is that the both Capito and Demaison never got the support James gets (for whatever reason that might be), and James is also very articulate. He is like the other James (Allison) and is great to listen to. The Williams car of last year was quite good and was a good starting point for Vowles. But that car was designed under the previous leadership.

[Xyz22]

Episode 3 of the BBC podcast Back at Base contains a few interesting bits of information:

- after a few late weight increases, they started 2023 with a significantly overweight car
- they had expected to be on target, but hadn't kept a firm enough grasp on mass during the design process
- Dave Worner led a project to take at least 10kg out of the 2023 car, which resulted in more fundamental changes for 2024:

Vowles adds:

I think James is approaching this the right way.

I think the biggest difference is that the both Capito and Demaison never got the support James gets (for whatever reason that might be), and James is also very articulate. He is like the other James (Allison) and is great to listen to. The Williams car of last year was quite good and was a good starting point for Vowles. But that car was designed under the previous leadership.

Agreed. It must be said that they improved the car quite well during the season compared to their competition, though.
It seems James is pushing for significant improvements across the entire organization.

[JPower]

I think Vowles main objective at least over the next few years should be to modernize Williams to the point where they are on par with the front half of the field in terms of manufacturing, engineering, etc. by the middle of 2025 in preparation for 2026. I think he's on his way.

In the meantime that will take compromises that don't necessarily push Williams towards the front of the grid at first. This gearbox would be one of those compromises. Prioritization is the name of the game here. McLaren has been going to through a similar transformation and I think Sauber is in process of doing the same.

[Xyz22]

I think Vowles main objective at least over the next few years should be to modernize Williams to the point where they are on par with the front half of the field in terms of manufacturing, engineering, etc. by the middle of 2025 in preparation for 2026. I think he's on his way.

In the meantime that will take compromises that don't necessarily push Williams towards the front of the grid at first. This gearbox would be one of those compromises. Prioritization is the name of the game here. McLaren has been going to through a similar transformation and I think Sauber is in process of doing the same.

Yeah. They need to update the infrastructures as much as possible and start making key components in house such as gearbox and rear suspension. It's a huge advantage if done correctly, but not easy for sure. It will take quite a lot of time i suppose.

[f1isgood]

I think James is approaching this the right way.

I think the biggest difference is that the both Capito and Demaison never got the support James gets (for whatever reason that might be), and James is also very articulate. He is like the other James (Allison) and is great to listen to. The Williams car of last year was quite good and was a good starting point for Vowles. But that car was designed under the previous leadership.

Agreed. It must be said that they improved the car quite well during the season compared to their competition, though.
It seems James is pushing for significant improvements across the entire organization.

Yeah, he seems very proactive in making them competitive and also keeps the public in the loop. It's great to see!

[AR3-GP]

James Vowles comes from the most successful team of the last decade. Those that came before him simply don't have that knowledge of what a winning team looks like.

[McMika98]

James Vowles comes from the most successful team of the last decade. Those that came before him simply don't have that knowledge of what a winning team looks like.

Lets not blow things out of proportion, he worked for BAR honda for a decade that was at best midfield despite Honda spending a lot of money. They won the championship as Brawn when Honda pulled the plug when they had no money to enter the championship.
Mercedes after buying Brawn spent millions with nothing to show in 4 years and it was the hybrid engine that gave them those championship not the car, he or anyone in that factory had very little to do with the domination.

I for one don't buy his excuse that they have infrastructure from Ming dynasty to compete. Bring in Adrian Newry and they will compete for championship in 2026.

[tomazy]

EDIT: Delited post becouse I posted in the wrong thread, post is now in FW46 thread.

[Moctecus]

Motorsport.com: Fry has “never seen anything like” late Williams F1 parts delivery
TL;DR: “The way we go about making a car is quite different, I would say, from what I would call normal,” said Fry. “And it's not very efficient.

[continuum16]

I stumbled across an interview with Vowles on the High Performance podcast where he talked about the inefficiency which he knew as early as Canada last year when they were up against it to get Albon the update. Other things I took from that interview which may be already known or merely expanded upon, but I still found interesting:

1) Vowles had already written off 2024. He said he doesn't care if he finishes last because the real focus is on getting processes in place for 2025 and mostly 2026.

2) He said that they will go backwards first before any progress is made. He doesn't want the team to just copy others, he wants to build everything from scratch. On that basis, the fact that the team may have stood still over the winter (instead of going backwards) might be an achievement in and of itself.

3) The staff had a general "change for the sake of change" mentality after years of instability and that every aspect of the team needed to be evaluated and essentially "reset" their expectations and question everything. Basically, "because we've done it this way" isn't going to fly anymore and it seems like the team is buying into this.

[McMika98]

https://www.pitdebrief.com/post/fw46-up ... ted-albon/

Seems like they don't have all the latest parts due to the Ming dynasty production line, Albon suggested post quali that they had more performance in car but not able to unlock it. Add the last year Merc rear suspension and they could have fared so much better with Alpine fumbling so badly.
Hopefully they can out develop and unlock more potential faster than competition.

[Sevach]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/shoc ... evolution/

An interesting on all that is being done internally at Williams.

[CaribouBread]

Difficult situation for Williams without a spare chassis! But I wonder what they'll decide to do, let Seargent race or prioritize Albon and give him Seargent's chassis. Not sure how to feel about it if they decide to go with the second option.

[CaribouBread]

Swap "confirmed"? Pragmatic decision by the team but you have to feel for Logan.