Williams Racing FW44 possibilities for improvement?

The opening series of races for the 2022 Formula One championship have seen the Williams Racing Team reflect on what has been a difficult start to the season despite their point scoring finish in Australia. Across the three opening races the overall results in terms of the performance of the new 2022 FW44 have been disappointing despite the occasional moment of improved performance such as the Q2 qualifying from Alex Albon in Bahrain.

The team has come away with several issues to address from the weight of the car through to the issue affecting quite a few teams that of the porpoising of the car which affects the level of ground effect that the car generates on certain parts of the track. But overall the FW44 suffers from a lack of balance which despite some minor steps forward is still an issue. Also the team has seen their drivers have issues with achieving the best performance from the 2022 Pirelli tyres in particular the softer tyre types.

In a recent interview with Motorsport-Total.com team driver Alex Albon spoke of the main areas of weakness of the FW44. He said: "Our weakness at the moment is above all the slow. The top teams seem to be in a much better position than everyone else. And that's what we have to focus on, because so far we have had to fight in slow places, especially on the brakes."

Alex added: "Purely from the GPS data, we are on average, I would say. Our car is also quite efficient in terms of air resistance. We are fast on the straights, which also helps."

At the recent Saudi Arabian GP Alex commented on the FW44: “It is tricky. When it is in the window, it’s fine, it’s actually a good car to drive. We’ve had moments of that so far, even at the end of the race we were pretty quick, it’s just trying to get it more consistent and predictable really.”

But at the same race team-mate Nicholas Latifi added: “I’m struggling a lot with the balance of the car. It’s one thing to just have the pace we’re at, lacking overall downforce, it’s another thing where you’re at and then balance wise it’s all over the pace.”

Alex would use phrases like "pretty okay" to describe the FW44 in medium-fast and fast parts of circuits.

For Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson the main issue with the car should be describe in terms of balance. Robson commented on this: "We've already made progress there and I think we're starting to do pretty well in terms of chassis height, set-up and porpoising so that we have the car in the right window."

Robson added: "But if we don't catch it optimally, we risk damage to the underbody. So that's probably our limit."

"Otherwise, we just lack a little more downforce to get the tyres up to speed and generally make us faster. But a lot of what you knew is no longer relevant this year, and you have to rethink.

Robson spoke of how the teams main focus is on the underbody of the FW44 as he feels that they need to arrive at a solution that gives them more efficient downforce.

"If we were able to gain some downforce here, but only get a little more air resistance, that would be ideal."

But he did add that he felt the team is "close" to a solution to strongly reduce the porpoising on the front axle.

Alex added to these comments by saying: "We want to improve the balance. But we're not talking about a fundamental problem here. We just have to make sure it gets better."

As for the question that many teams are asking of did we get the initial concept wrong Robson made it clear that the Williams wants to retain their current concept. Mind you this position may change for the 2023 season.

Robson added: "Of course you have to be open-minded that there could be a better overall concept. For now, however, I think our concept fits. We also have room to improve it further."

As for the issue of the weight of the FW44 it is reported to weigh in at around 803kg, five over the limit set by the FIA. But it was noticed that sections of the FW44 at the recent Australian Grand Prix were now not painted which it was assumed to save weight, even though their is the aspect of it making it quicker to manufacture parts skipping the painting process.

A full paint job on an F1 car is estimated to weigh around six kilograms so any reduction in this could see several kilograms removed from the weight of the car.

Robson commented: "Of course you always aim to make the car even lighter. And the colour design does its part to reduce the weight of the vehicle."

"It's a very big task to get these cars below the minimum weight. We will also continue to work on this, even if we have no idea where we stand in comparison when it comes to obesity. It's hard to say."

But the one significant difficulty that all teams have to contend with is the budget cap where teams will have to evaluate how often and how significant upgrades that can afford to bring to their car over the course of the season.

Robson said: "Do I spend the money on new parts? Or do I wait a little longer for the development in the wind tunnel so that I get more for the money in the end?"

"This is a really difficult decision. Because whether it's right or not, it also depends on what the competition is doing. So it's kind of a game. It's entertaining, but difficult."

But Robson spoke of how especially in light of the run of damaged Williams cars coming from the first three races even though it does have an impact on the budget it does allow for some steps forward. Robson said: "On the other hand, because things move along in the wind tunnel reasonably quickly, the fact you have to make some extra parts, you can make them to a slightly improved spec if you know what you want to do."

For Williams to consider a complete change of concept for the FW44 would mean a major financial expenditure by the team which could be far better used to address and resolve the current issues they have.

Despite the relief of the first point of the 2022 season and the performance in Australia on the harder tyres the Williams Racing Team still has a lot of significant issues to address and to attempt to resolve. As for when the team will implement their first significant upgrades Alex used the word "soon". The opening series of races have seen updates to the FW44 but these have been more track specific.

For the Williams team the next big challenge has to be gaining an understanding of the issues of the FW44 from the data gathered and then move ahead with major upgrades. As for when these would be likely to appear given the next series of races includes a fly away to the United States Spain would be the most likely race.

But coming off the opening series of races is that big question are there possibilities for improvement for the FW44. I would have to say that I am confident that there most certainly is.