2024 Williams Racing F1 Team

[Moctecus]

The big change Vowles brought is focusing on long-term targets and being willing to sacrifice performance in the short-term to achieve them. He's kept repeating that from day one. We won't see if his approach pays off until 2026 at the earliest.

“It isn’t about one year anymore, and for that matter it’s not about 2024 either or 2025, and that’s not meaning to sound defeatist, that’s more presenting to everyone that we have aspirations to keep moving up the grid. We’re prepared to sacrifice the current years to be able to do that.
“That’s a large philosophy change and it’s a hard philosophy change, but it’s one that I’m confident is the right one. We’re not here to fight for seventh or eighth, or for that matter fifth, we’re here to start fighting for proper positions.
“If we’re going to do that, we have to accept that we’re going to break infrastructure, break systems, redevelop ourselves, not leave any stone unturned. That’s difficult for organisations but that’s the path we’re on.”

Williams ended up where they are by only living in the here and now and neglecting the long-term. They always put everything into the car to maximise short-term performance and did not — to be fair, for many years did not have the means to — invest into and evolve their infrastructure and procedures for the long-term. You do not recover from decades of underinvestment and failing to evolve with the times by only doing small incremental changes that don't break anything. Doubly under the limitations of the budget cap.
Vowles last year talked about how 2024 might see them go backwards in performance:

“I’m more focused on making sure that we make a good step next year.
“Now, the good step’s an interesting one, because even in those terms, we may not step significantly forward in performance.
“But what I’ll see is structured systems in place rather than our methodologies, and for most of that it means I’m going have to break a few things. To break it may mean you go backwards in the short-term, for long-term gains.

Considering the scope of the changes they made over the winter, the 2024 season actually didn't start too badly. I was fearing another 2018 or 2019 disaster. Vowles pushed the team to the point of breaking but luckily did not ignore their limitations and aim for something they are in no position to pull off like Williams did under Lowe in 2018.
The FW46 started on the back foot and is falling behind on development, but it doesn't appear to be fundamentally flawed. We'll get a better idea of its potential when the first significant upgrades arrive, hopefully starting in Imola.

[clownfish]

Albon has been confirmed on a multi-year deal.

[DGP123]

Albon has been confirmed on a multi-year deal.

Makes sense. He’s not anywhere near elite, and name only branded around for other drives by the media looking for clicks

F1 is ruthless. He had his chance at RB, and I think he has now found a home, and will likely see out his days in F1 at Williams.

[214270]

Albon has been confirmed on a multi-year deal.

RIP peter windsor’s credibility - had him signed for Rb not so long ago.

[Moctecus]

AMuS mentioned in their Miami team ranking that the FW46 has a serious weight issue, which I hadn't heard before:
"The biggest problem, however, is the excess weight of the FW46. This costs up to four tenths."

Now Sporting Director Sven Smeets confirms the issue in their Imola preview:
"The weight-saving measures we're bringing over the coming races will hopefully bring overall performance to the car."

Interesting that they are having weight issues again after what they went through last year. The FW46 might be a much better car than it appeared if they are actually losing "up to four tenths" due to weight alone.

EDIT:

Vowles offers more detail and confirms the excess weight is costing them 0.45 sec / lap:

“The transformation we did between 2023 to ‘24 was that we took 14 kilos out of the chassis,” he said.
[...]
“However, the car this year that we've been running is about four and a half tenths a lap slower, every lap, by the fact it is still overweight.”
Vowles explained that the extra weight was simply a consequence of things having run so close to deadlines over the winter.
[...]
“So Imola is the start of weight reduction, that will now continue across the next six races fundamentally in order to get us back to where we need to be.”
Vowles said that Williams was not likely to be bang on the weight limit by the end of the six race push, but would be close enough to it to be happy.

via Motosport.com

[McMika98]

How do you drop 14 kilos from chassis alone and then put more weight back from other parts. One step forward and many steps back.

On the positive side they were pretty competitive before the last few races so expect a better showing in coming races.

[Sevach]

https://www.racefans.net/2024/05/17/sar ... ve-vowles/

Putting it out there loud and clear this time.

[bigblue]

This Vowles quote confuses / intrigues me “Our chassis went from a few hundred bits to a few thousand bits. That's just one part of the car.” How is that even possible? Where did the extra complexity come from? Is he talking about carbon fibre layup, or the whole car minus engine and gearbox? Whichever way, it still sounds crazy.

[maygun]

This Vowles quote confuses / intrigues me “Our chassis went from a few hundred bits to a few thousand bits. That's just one part of the car.” How is that even possible? Where did the extra complexity come from? Is he talking about carbon fibre layup, or the whole car minus engine and gearbox? Whichever way, it still sounds crazy.

It is probably related to how you manufacture parts. You can assemble the gearbox from 10 pieces or 100 pieces, I think he means that is changed. Having smaller parts makes you more agile and efficient when you want to make changes.

[search]

German Sky just showed Bottas leaving the Williams hospitality. Maybe the team wasn't answering his phone calls?

[Moctecus]

AMuS mentioned in their Miami team ranking that the FW46 has a serious weight issue, which I hadn't heard before:
"The biggest problem, however, is the excess weight of the FW46. This costs up to four tenths."

An update from AMuS in their most recent F1-Team-Ranking:

Williams begins to reduce the weight of its car. At the start of the season, the excess weight was eleven kilograms. A new underbody filed away three kilograms. That is a tenth, but it could not be realised because too much went wrong during the execution on the track.

An excess weight of 11 kg costing "about four and a half tenths a lap" (Vowles) sounds quite high, especially without an "up to" qualifier, but not impossibly so. The usual rule of thumb (0.3 sec / 10 kg) would suggest just over three tenths for 11 kg or a weight of 15 kg for Vowles' 0.45 sec figure. I guess the specific location can always drive the loss in lap time up or down.

[tomazy]

AMuS mentioned in their Miami team ranking that the FW46 has a serious weight issue, which I hadn't heard before:
"The biggest problem, however, is the excess weight of the FW46. This costs up to four tenths."

An update from AMuS in their most recent F1-Team-Ranking:

Williams begins to reduce the weight of its car. At the start of the season, the excess weight was eleven kilograms. A new underbody filed away three kilograms. That is a tenth, but it could not be realised because too much went wrong during the execution on the track.

An excess weight of 11 kg costing "about four and a half tenths a lap" (Vowles) sounds quite high, especially without an "up to" qualifier, but not impossibly so. The usual rule of thumb (0.3 sec / 10 kg) would suggest just over three tenths for 11 kg or a weight of 15 kg for Vowles' 0.45 sec figure. I guess the specific location can always drive the loss in lap time up or down.

If we look at Imola pole lap from VER and compare it to his first timed lap of the race, the diffirence in weight is 100kg (they can use 110kg of fuel for the race, but Q was not 0 kg of fuel, so lets say 100).

Q lap was 1:14.746, first race lap was 1:20.596, that is a diffirence of 5,832s. Lets say that there is 0,5s diffirence from soft to medium tires, and 1s for not pushing so hard and saving the tires, we get a diffirence of 4.332s. That would translate to 0,4332s per 10kg, that is really close to what Volwes said. It is all guess work from my side, but I strugle too see only 3s diffirence in lap timed for 100kg of fuel.

Also, saving 3kgs only from diffirent carbonfibre layout of the floor is huge, I wonder where all the other weight is hiding in.

[Big Tea]

AMuS mentioned in their Miami team ranking that the FW46 has a serious weight issue, which I hadn't heard before:
"The biggest problem, however, is the excess weight of the FW46. This costs up to four tenths."

An update from AMuS in their most recent F1-Team-Ranking:

Williams begins to reduce the weight of its car. At the start of the season, the excess weight was eleven kilograms. A new underbody filed away three kilograms. That is a tenth, but it could not be realised because too much went wrong during the execution on the track.

An excess weight of 11 kg costing "about four and a half tenths a lap" (Vowles) sounds quite high, especially without an "up to" qualifier, but not impossibly so. The usual rule of thumb (0.3 sec / 10 kg) would suggest just over three tenths for 11 kg or a weight of 15 kg for Vowles' 0.45 sec figure. I guess the specific location can always drive the loss in lap time up or down.

Its not just the 11kg of carbon they have to drag around, it is in turn affecting almost everything, from the amount of extra fuel they need to start with again increasing weight, which has to be accelerated and retarded affecting use of energy, tyres etc. It is a huge knock on effect.

[Macklaren]

So why on earth would Sainz sign for Williams over Audi supposedly throwing a ton of money at him?
Maybe be thinks Newey could be going to Williams? They would be quite a coup for 2026 with the Merc engine

[Moctecus]

Williams are further along in their rebuilding phase than Sauber, with the latter only having started in earnest a few months ago.
Sauber are working on increasing staff levels from 600 to 900 and to operate at the budget cap. Williams are already there on both fronts. They are more likely to make steps forward for 2025 and especially 2026.
On the engine side, Seidl freely admits Audi are starting with an experience deficit, which they will have to make up. The 2026 Mercedes engine is reportedly already looking promising.
The lack of politics at Williams vs a manufacturer-backed team might also be a factor.
If Sainz cannot get a seat at a top team, Williams might actually be the next best option.