Adam Carter, the Chief Engineer at Williams Racing, says the FW43 is the result of hard work being done by the engineering department at Grove, but the decision to retain some of the ‘core architecture’ of its predecessor, the FW42, has saved them resources.
On the back of an extremely disappointing 2019, Carter says the hard work being done is beginning to pay dividends, and it gives the team some optimism heading into the new season.
They finished bottom of the Constructors’ Championship last year, scoring only one point, with Mercedes-Benz backed George Russell the only driver on the grid that failed to break into the top ten.
“The initiatives that we put in place to drive performance across all disciplines within the engineering department are evident in the design and development of the FW43,” said Carter. “It’s been great to see the hard work starting to pay off.
“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 Aerodynamics in order to maximise the efficiency of the resources.”
‘The Most Important Measure will be the Progress Relative to our Peers’
The car took to the track for the first time on Monday as part of a filming day for Williams, but Carter says the up-coming test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya that starts on Wednesday will give them the first indications of just how much they have improved compared to 2019.
Whilst not expecting to be at the front of the field, Carter expects the team to have closed the gap on those ahead of them in the midfield battle and wants to see Russell and new addition Nicholas Latifi fighting for points.
“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,” said Carter.
“Later this week, we will be looking at our single timed lap pace, our long run pace and the feedback from the drivers to understand where we are and what we do next.
“We have teams, both at the track and back at Grove, that will be delving into all aspects that define that lap time during the pre-season tests to ensure we are in the best possible place ahead of the first race in Australia.”
