Williams F1 has identified its ‘Achilles heel’ in 2023

Williams F1 quickly realized the problems with its car in 2023, as head of performance Dave Robson explains.

The wheel locks were quickly detected, and the team then focused on understanding this recurring problem.

“We left Bahrain knowing what our limits were, the tendency to lock the inside front wheel seemed quite high” Robson said.

“And that can be very expensive and also depends a little on the wind, a factor that Williams remains particularly shimmering at.”

“But we were able, based on the Bahrain trials, to put into production some of the parts that we had already designed, but with that in mind. So we saw steady improvement over the first few packages, but it “It’s still a bit of our Achilles heel.”

But Williams struggled to identify the problems on the FW45, and understood that the lack of braking support was responsible: “Part of the problem is that we don’t know exactly what it is.”

“I think it’s, as always with this model of things, a combination of everything. We probably can’t put as much front downforce on the car in this phase as we would like.”

“There’s obviously a lot to be gained from running a relatively stiff car and once you trigger that lockup, that in itself has an aerodynamic effect and you end up in a bit of a spiral.”

“But I think it’s something that we have a good handle on, and that’s what we’ve done over the last couple of years. We’ll see in February whether we understand it or not. But we’ve taken some decent steps, I think, to try to improve it on next year’s car.”

A noter : Williams has just specified the presentation time of his car next Monday, February 5. This will be done at 9:40 a.m. from Unusual York, or 3:40 p.m. in France, and it will be possible to follow it online.

Official presentation dates for 2024 F1:

February 2 – Haas F1 VF-24 at 3 p.m. (delivered, online)
February 5 – Williams F1 FW46 at 3:40 p.m. (Unusual York)
February 5 – Stake F1 Crew (London)
February 7 – Alpine F1 A524 (location still unknown)
February 8 – Visa Money App RB (Las Vegas)
February 11 – Haas F1 VF-24 (shakedown)
February 12 – Aston Martin F1 AMR24 (Silverstone)
February 13 – Ferrari SF-24 (Maranello)
14 February – Mercedes F1 W15 (Silverstone)
February 14 – McLaren F1 MCL38 (location still unknown)
February 15 – Pink Bull RB20 (location still unknown)