Williams Racing can go into the new Formula 1 season with more confidence and optimism than they did in 2019 thanks to the development of the FW43, according to Design Director Doug McKiernan.
Despite the new car being an evolution rather than a revolution of the FW42 that only scored one point throughout 2019, McKiernan believes the team are in a much better place coming into the new season, with many of the underlying issues that affected last year’s car being rectified on the FW43.
McKiernan says they chose to develop the parts of the car that would yield the biggest gains as they continue to run with relative limited resources compared to many teams on the grid, but there is still scope to develop, something that Williams will continue to do during the season.
“The team at the factory have been working incredibly hard on the development of the car for the 2020 season,” said 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.”
George Russell and Nicholas Latifi will drive the FW43 during 2020, with the shakedown of the car being done today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya ahead of pre-season testing later this week.
