Williams FW37 is first 2015 F1 car to be pictured

2015 F1 season

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The first picture of a 2015 F1 car has appeared. A rendering of the Williams FW37 is to be published on the cover of a magazine.

The FW37, which was fired up for the first time today by the team at their factory, appears on the front cover of the new issue of F1 Racing magazine. An image of the cover appeared on Twitter ahead of its publication.

The most distinctive feature on the new car is its radically shortened nose tip, designed to comply with the revised 2015 regulations on nose shape.

The car also features the logos of new Williams sponsors Rexona and Hackett.

Williams FW37 rendering, 2015

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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112 comments on “Williams FW37 is first 2015 F1 car to be pictured”

  1. To me the Nose looks even worse than everything we saw in 2014.

    1. @unitedkingdomracing Ironically, the more the FIA meddle and try to design out ugly noses, the worse they become..

      1. @unitedkingdomracing @fastiesty I’m sorry to have to say I agree. And with the nose rules being even stricter this year, you have to suspect this is the shape of things to come (literally).

        It may not be quite as preposterous as some of those we saw last year, but even so you couldn’t ask for a more obvious example of how over-regulation is hurting F1. They don’t just need to change the rules to fix this, they need to change their approach to writing them, and stop trying to place a straitjacket on the designers.

        1. The Blade Runner (@)
          21st January 2015, 9:04

          Completely agree. At least the long 2014 “nose” was in keeping with the overall shape of the car.

          Maybe it was just cold when they took the picture…?!

          1. * Maybe it was just cold when they took the picture…?! * +1

            gotta hate shrinkage!!

      2. I thought the regs were supposed to outlaw these appendages. What about the nose Lotus trialled in Austin?

    2. A year ago I though FW36 had a bit weird nose, now it’s much worse.
      Last year after few races I was perfectly ok with all noses, I hope it’ll be the same this season. But I really wish FIA would leave the regulations alone.

      At least Williams keeps Martini stripes unchanged.

      1. Why couldn’t they all be forced to make noses similar to the Mercedes or Redbull of last year. The incompetence of this organisation is astounding.

        1. They certainly could do that, but then they’d be restricting the regulations even furthor instead of opening them up and allowing more diversity and innovation which most fans have been begging for.

          1. I wouldn’t call those horrible appendages cutting edge innovations.

          2. @stabel91 That’s more what actually happened. Personally, I liked the Mercedes/Ferrari noses, much better than regular noses with ‘appendages’ on the front of them. I thought that’s the direction they had gone in, too… @blackmamba

        2. @blackmamba, the reason is because the teams have lobbied the FIA hard to water down any changes in the regulations which might have forced them to make larger changes.

          Remember when we had the ultra high noses around 2010 and 2011? The FIA tried to ban those nose cones because, on some cars, the noses were actually higher than the side impact protection structures so, if a driver was T-boned, there was a possibility that they’d be struck in the side of the head by the nose cone of the other car.

          The teams used their voting rights to force the FIA to push the changes in the nose cone structure to 2012 – and, when they did come in, we saw teams using stepped noses because the FIA had to accept a compromise solution that allowed the teams to continue using a high chassis for 2012 and the maximum height nose possible (save for Marussia and McLaren, who went for a different philosophy).

        3. If you want same cars better move to Indy, F1 needs people who think outside the box following regulations thats why trough out the years we have witnessed some fantastic concepts even 6 wheelers.

    3. So, basically, the FW36, having a long nose previously, appears to have had a nose job and now it is called FW37.

    4. Caterham, not only gone but already forgotten?!

      1. I say we ask the female fans what they prefer as its simply the old length versus Girth argument being played out here ;-)

        But seriously, really? What a joke.

    5. It’s a nubbin.

    6. petebaldwin (@)
      21st January 2015, 10:28

      Yeah but it’s the same old thing again. Everyone will complain about how the cars look until about lap 3 in Melbourne when everyone will forget about it.

      No-one was bothered about the look of the previous noses by the end of the season. Same with the stepped noses previously and the small rear wings before that. You just get used to them and they’re fine.

    7. Seriously, who cares what they look like? As long as meets the requirements of a current F1 car its appearance is utterly irrelevant.

      Very odd.

    8. oh christ, another season of ugly….

      1. Personally I don’t mind the look, and of course the standard comeback to them opening up the regs for ‘better’ noses (which would be just as subjective anyway), is higher costs and the teams with the best wind tunnel and most resources winning. So let’s be honest…there was so much strife on this site last season over F1 not being able to sustain the bottom two teams, and yet costs should be ignored in favour of some kind of nose that ‘everyone’ likes?

        I’m for whatever noses keep costs reasonable, and the racing close, while restricting their addiction to downforce in F1. And as has been mentioned before, they’ll look normal in no time anyway once the season begins.

  2. So the nicest bit of the 2014 Williams – the convex nose – has been replaced by the horrible concave shape? And the tip of the nose has remained, and looks possibly more awkward? And how’s the front wing even attached to the rest of the car, the pylons are getting smaller and smaller!

    1. @fixy I do think the front wings are starting to look oversized compared to the rest of the car (the viewing angle doesn’t help). Rosberg hitting Hamilton at Spa showed why they need to now be a bit smaller/not stick out as much, although they also need front downforce to be able to stay closer to the cars in front (now also arguably pointless as DRS/tyre deg brings the most passing).

      1. @fastiesty

        although they also need front downforce to be able to stay closer to the cars in front (now also arguably pointless as DRS/tyre deg brings the most passing).

        They should NOT rely on DRS/Tyre-deg to create the racing, They should come up with a regulation package that removes the need for those kinds of artificial gimmicks.

        Changing the cars so they are almost completely reliant on artificial gimmicks to produce the racing just makes them more & more reliant on those things & makes it far less likely that they will move away from them & this will also see them spread down the ladder (As were seeing with GP2 introducing DRS this year which is entirely unnecisary).

        Watching cars breezing by each other on straights via DRS & watching uncontested passing via the tyres is NOT all that entertaining & I’d much rather they work on regulations that remove the need for them so we get back to some real & exciting racing & some truly exciting overtaking.

        If they ever go the way you suggest & stop the push to allow cars to follow closer in the belief that DRS/tyre-deg has solved everything then that woudl be the final straw for me & I’d turn F1 off for good.
        I just wish the days where DRS & artificial tyre-deg are a part of F1 would go away already, Its getting boring!

        1. True.. but every time they try, like with the noses for instance, they just make it worse. I remember the 1997 season was great (the first I followed start to finish), yet, that didn’t stop an abysmal rule set coming in for 1998, which was supposed to help overtaking, but made it much harder to overtake….

          1. The noses were not changed to help overtaking, They were changed on safety grounds because the higher noses weer found to be above the side impact & cockpit structures & it was feared that there was a chance that this could see a driver’s head be hit in a t-bone accident (Schumacher was lucky to avoid this when he was hit by Liuzzi at Abu-Dhabi 2010).

            Was the samw with the 1998 regulations, They were introduced to slow the cars down as part of the continuing safety push after Imola 1994.

            The only set of regulations that were specifically aimed to improve racing/overtaking was the 2009 changes & the fact the stats show overtaking increased in 2009 with a bigger increase in 2010 (Thanks to refueling ban) I’d say they worked.
            The only reason we have DRS is because people complained after Bahrain 2010 & the FIA did a kneejerk reaction with DRS before letting the rest of the year play out. If they had waited & looked at the whole season they would have seen overtaking was up & that DRS was not really necessary at all. They came up with DRS based off what people believed was true (There was no overtaking) & not what was actually true (Overtaking was up big time in 2010 as figures went back up to Pre-refueling levels).

      2. I thoguht the front wings had already bee reduced between 2013 and 2014.

  3. It’s a grower not a shower apparently.

    1. Haha perfect

    2. Oh…just….wow +1 LOL

    3. That is brilliant! :D

    4. Bloodcock…

  4. Well, in the spirit of charitability, lets hope the aerodynamic improvement gets the car close enough to Mercedes to give them a race. Otherwise, I recommend the designer needs an eye test!

    1. Assuming that this is really the race car, not just a mock-up for promo purposes.

  5. Easy to miss the much larger sidepod branding this year – looks like they’ve got some more income (or have lowered the rate card…)

    1. @keithcollantine They might have done, but I reckon it must be from the amount of visibility Williams had in 2014. Rexona, for example, had great visibility on the 2012/13 Lotus, but as soon as that dried up last year, they jumped ship to Williams ASAP.

    2. That nose should be wrth a few milions in sponsoring, everyone’sa eyes are drawn to how ugly it is.

    3. Looks to be Rexona…we can expect a Williams livery on a deodorant can soon!

    4. Their white body is actually great fro sponsors, they deserve more sponsors than that.

  6. LOL, just reading the comments (and mind you, I agree with them)… people, huh? I also dislike this one and prefer the 2014 spec!

    We’ll never be pleased! We got used to those horrible things so quickly, in the same way we became used to the stepped ones in 2012 and 2013.

    I hate myself… but, again, I prefer the 2014 one !

    1. You honestly thought that the nose of the FW36 looked bad when you first saw it? Can’t believe anyone was thinking that. Ok so the “finger” bit was weird, but it was still nice looking.

      1. @oel-f1 well, the Williams was the first car to be released last year, wasn’t it? so yeah, it looked horrible. Then we saw it in full Martini livery and was a bit better, but at first glance, it was just as horrible as the others.

        But, mind, you’re also seeing it today having seen it for a whole year, so it looks a bit better than the very first time.

        http://www.williamsf1.com/team/media/news/first-images-of-the-fw36-revealed/

        1. @fer-no65 Yeah I absolutely remember those pictures, and I actually thought that car looked great, in that plain blue livery, of course slightly “uglified” by the finger but still great. When I first saw the Martini version I thought it looked worse though, although it’s grown on me. But hey, I guess that’s just me!

    2. The worst part is, that we were told to expect less diversity this year. So if this is what we changed the rules for to achieve, I think the FIA should have just left it up to the teams (or only specify the more gradual deceleration, as that is a safety aspect) @fer-no65

  7. I don’t think its too bad. If we have a reduction of the phallic noses to something like this I will be happy.

    Come on, lets be realistic, when have they ever given us what we wanted?

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      20th January 2015, 19:17

      Looks much more like the 2014 Mercedes.

    2. @bamboo, I doubt that the rule makers will ever be able to give the public what they want given that most of the public don’t seem to know what they want themselves.

    3. @bamboo,@coldfly,anon, More to the point how long has it been since aesthetics trumped aerodynamics ?

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        21st January 2015, 3:11

        @hohum. Call me shallow, but when I hit the town aesthetics win it over aerodynamics ;-)

      2. And thats really it, in the pursuit of the competitive edge the sports aesthetic appeal has reduced. With basically every aspect of science involved with F1 being quantified and understood in the last 2-3 decades along with the current regulations we will not see any substantial innovation like we have done so in the past. It has come to the point where the wind tunnel has becoming an over used and very expensive tool.

        All teams aerodynamic understanding of the cars are 99% the same, but a ridiculous amount of money is spent on getting a better understanding of the unknown 1%. Its simply a stalemate situation – do you really think Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, & McLaren would push for a reduction in the use of wind tunnels when they have invested millions to get the competitive advantage.

        There was once a time I would call an F1 car sexy.

        1. but that’s really not the case is it. Building the best car involves understanding the trade offs, the circuits, the power unit, the aero, the tires, etc…

          the commentators focus on the aero because that’s what you can see, and while it is important, that’s really not how it works. It’s clear Williams didn’t have the same level of drag as Mercedes last year because they didn’t have the ability to manage that kind of solution, so they played it conservatively, saved fuel and passed people down the straight. If RBR or Ferrari get any where near as competitive a power unit, Williams will go backwards very fast.

          The difference between understanding theory and being able to apply it is the difference between making a very good living and working at a pizza joint.

  8. If you stare at your own nose long enough it starts to look weird, however the more i look at this nose the more acceptable it is. Aside from tip of the nose, i think it’s a nice design. The greater slope and the way it appears to taper outwards at the end is pretty neat. I’m sure we’ll all adjust and it probably won’t be the worst.

  9. Looks like the sidepods will be filled up this year with Rexona instead of a blank space.

    1. Should smell rather nice then!

  10. So, it’s sort of similar to the Mercedes of last year, but slightly more swoopy (real word, I swear) and a big toe attached to the end.
    Well, I’m not interested to see what the other teams have come up with. The 2015 Marussia that was seen as part of the auction stuff looked to have a much nicer shaped nose.

  11. Congratulations, rulemakers, well done…

    1. @oel-f1 I know that the teams have loads of engineers all working to exploit the rules for performance advantage, but surely if the rule makers want rid of something (i.e. Phallic noses) they really should be able to write the rule book better truly get rid

      1. @3dom absolutely! But anyway trying to force everyone into use Ferrari’s horribly ugly vacuum cleaner nose was a very stupid idea from the beginning.

      2. @3dom They could, But then you woudl have everyone complaining that the FIA were been too restrictive.

        Both last year & this they have tried to write the rules to get the lower noses & better front crash safety structures they want without basically forcing the teams into a specific design to the point where it basically becomes a spec part.

  12. The nose looks like a jigsaw puzzle.

    1. I imagine Lotus will now be trying hard to make sure they have a fitting female-type puzzle piece as a nose.

      1. LOL, although If I ran Lotus, I would create a rear crash structure that is a “female type puzzle piece”, hoping to be in front of the Williams.

  13. Why do they make rules that allow so much space between the tip of the nose and the end of the front wing plate(the flat part of the wing)? It seems like part of the nose is missing.

  14. So as I see I’ll be the first to say that I don’t mind this nose. It reminds me of the original nose of last year’s McLaren which I really liked, and it’s definitely a thousand times better than the Ferrari was.

  15. Looks stunning.

  16. i dont like the way it looks like :( to me, williams had the best looking nose of 2014. shame that this one is ugly. but as always, we’ll get used to it. hoping not many other teams will go for this type.

    1. RIP in peace F1.

      1950-1938 (because 1938 is when real grand prix racing died.)[/sarcasm]

  17. Why don’t they just paint that horrible little nub matte black? It’s hideous.

  18. I have an idea for FIA. How about you set the regs which demand each team to go through the process of vetting their nose design by a public vote, so that the fans decide whether it looks good or bad, and if it’s bad they have to do another one?
    This just looks bad. I can see the jokes about “size matters” coming =)

  19. What an ugly thing!!!!! Looking forward to seeing a finaly-decent McLaren, regarding shape and livery please!!!

    1. you can blame mclaren for an awful livery, but you can’t blame any team for having an ugly nose, that goes to the FIA…

      1. Yeah you can, Mercedes do a pretty descent nose if you ask me.

  20. Like saying goes, give an F1 designer an inch, and he’ll put a phallus on the car.

    Congratulations rule makers for failing again and actually making the only team with a half way aesthetic proboscis nose look worse.

    I just hope the shrinkage won’t be an indicator of Williams upcoming performance. I’d really like to see them coming first…

    1. @philipgb An inch, phallus; there is a joke about your penis somewhere in there.

      1. Well I do use it as a frontal crash structure.

    2. Comnent of the day!

  21. It looks great.
    People simply love to complain about everything.

  22. A big part of that win was because of the return of the livery. I think we all must be honest and say that when all cars had the same livery we would easily see the Mercedes win this contest.

  23. C’mon guys its rather cold in January, don’t be mean.

    1. THIS should be the COTD…

  24. Oh Williams what have you done!

  25. Is there any regulation to the length of the front wing along the longitudinal axis of the cars?

    In the past, I thought the ever-decreasing importance of downforce-generation and the ever-increasing importance of airflow-direction in the past few years was made possible by the ever-decreasing rear downforce of the cars (smaller rear wings, larger front wings in 2009, shallower rear wings and no beam wing in 2014, no diffuser blowing, etc.). Which might still be the case up to a point, but if the designer, in the meantime could made front wings that are longer along the car’s longitudinal axis, then that may also mean the total downforce it generated may still have increased despite some of it clearly having been sacrificed for airflow-channelling elements.

  26. I’ve just given up commenting on the nose of any of the cars. The FIA rules have just continually screwed up any attempt to make them more aesthetically pleasing. Sigh. How clueless can you be???

    But the rest of the car looks beautiful and I love their M&R livery! Nice.

  27. As long as that nose can win a World Championship I don’t care what it looks like.

  28. It’s not about the size, it’s about the technique(ology). :)

  29. @KiethCollantine Alternate angle http://imgur.com/W7Q9juk

    1. Thanks for the link @theo-hrp Sigh. OK, everyone repeat after me:
      “I WILL get used to that hideous, vacuum-cleaner style Ferrari nose on every car on the grid”
      “I WILL get used to that hideous, vacuum-cleaner style Ferrari nose on every car on the grid”
      “I WILL get used to that hideous, vacuum-cleaner style Ferrari nose on every car on the grid”
      “I WILL get used to that hideous, vacuum-cleaner style Ferrari nose on every car on the grid”
      Thanks for damaging my retinas, FIA.

    2. Honestly, this is hurting my eyes

    3. That is not the actual Williams, it’s a fan impression of the 2015 car shape.

  30. a vacuum cleaning ant eater

  31. This is deeply upsetting. Here was I, looking forward the first season in years with (relatively) good looking cars and yet again the FIA has failed to anticipate that its regulations will produce ugly cars. Furthermore I fear this will not be a one off as I have seen pics of the never-to-run 2015 marussia which also featured a shrivelled appendage. What purpose on earth does this absurd nose tip serve; surely it has no real value as part of the crash structure. Lose the nose tip and you have a decent looking car. The most frustrating part of all of this is that the 2014 Mercedes had the most attractive nose and was the class of the field – why was it not replicated elsewhere? Time to give designers greater freedom – in the 90’s we used to have a variety of nose heights and shapes but all where good looking.

    1. It wasn’t replicated because even Mercedes struggled with crash testing.

  32. I prefer McLaren MP4/4 nose. Everything was simpler in those days…

  33. Ok nose aside, first things to notice for me:

    Airbox is very low and downswooping in the alternate angle picture. Just look hiw big the fin in top is.

    The sides of the nose come down very low and seem to form a tunnel , as if the pylons are extended like tuningvanes

    Front wheel suspension looks strange. If themat is a pullrod is is very horizontal and very angular to the chassis

    1. Also the airintake on the airbox is different shape in the 2 pictures, round vs angular…

    2. Is this not just a rendering, so we do not know how old it the 3d concept is nor who rendered it and how accurate they had to be.

      So i would not read to much into suspention angles and fine details at this stage. Wait for a picture of the real thing.

  34. IMO, it is an improvement over the 2014 nose. The 2014 nose looked more like a p**** than this year.

  35. Ignoring the extension thingamajig, the rest of the nose reminds me of this Williams nose from 2009 testing: http://www.f1-site.com/wallpapers/2009/presentation_williams2/f1/williams-fw31-livery-official-f1-2009-5.jpg

    I don’t think it’s that bad really. I preferred Williams’ 2014 nose, but that was one of the better looking on the grid. I’m looking forward to seeing the others, and not just for the noses.

    On a side note, Williams seem to be doing well in the sponsorship department. Even though they lost Banco do Brasil, they’ve nicked Rexona and Avanade from Lotus and have signed up Hackett (they previously sponsored Lotus in 2010).

  36. The nose of the Williams puzzles me…

  37. I actually like the new Williams Car, including nose

  38. I thought 2015 was supposed to see an end to ‘penused’ cars!! This, on the FW37 looks like nothing has changed. It’s penused, albeit not as well endowed as the FW36

  39. It’s worse tan last year’s nose. Let’s see what Red Bull comes up with.

  40. I like the fact that Williams chose number 77 on the rendered car.
    Massa started his 2014 season with a no.1 driver complex and I bet this reminds him that he didn´t deliver.

  41. Nobody is happy with anything anymore.

    I don’t mind it and think that the paint job is great.

    Bring on the new season.

  42. They just need to get rid of the *ahem* bulbous bit on the end of the nose and it would look OK.

  43. DAMN that’s one sexy ass. Needs a nose job tho ^^

  44. It would be much less obvious if they were allowed to make the nose out of transparent aluminum.

  45. digitalrurouni
    21st January 2017, 0:37

    Am I the only one but this car looks just like the 2016 car? And boy is that livery boring ugh.

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