Williams has presented the first images of its new car for the 2020 Formula 1 season.
Deputy team principal Claire Williams promised “a fresh start for the team” in 2020.“We have spent time addressing our areas of weakness and have ensured that we have the right people, structures, procedures and resource in place to deliver competitive race cars,” she said. “We are all committed to re-building Williams and returning the team to competitiveness.
“As such, our 2020 campaign is about making progress. The fighting spirit is still very much alive, and this year, everyone will continue that fight until we get back to where we want to be.”
The team is looking to bounce back from its poor 2019 campaign. It finished last in the constructors’ championship for the second year in a row, and managed just a single points finish all year, courtesy of Robert Kubica.
Following his departure, George Russell leads the team in his second season of Formula 1. He is joined by last year’s Formula 2 runner-up, and the only rookie in the 2020 field, Nicholas Latifi.
Williams has also shaken up its technical department following former chief technical officer Paddy Lowe’s departure last year. That came in the wake of the team’s failure to complete its 2019 car in time for pre-season testing.
The team said it intends to complete its first shakedown run of the new car today at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Pictures: 2020 Williams F1 car
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Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
17th February 2020, 8:08
3 white cars! There’s not enough representation in f1!
Pedro Andrade
17th February 2020, 8:12
Williams have gone full-blown Marussia!
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
17th February 2020, 8:14
Surely, surely THIS one can’t be as bad as the last. Everything crossed for a half decent season for Williams. I fear what the future might hold if 2020 is a repeat of the last 2 years.
kpcart
17th February 2020, 8:26
it looks very simple still compared to other teams aero. I think it will be a repeat of last year, they are atleast a year behind the others in development. Maybe 2021 will bring a change. Very nice looking livery though.
Hakk The Rack
17th February 2020, 8:17
Cmon, you have to admit, that’s a surprise, as the car’s looks simply great.
Jesper (@jesperfey13)
17th February 2020, 8:18
AquaFresh should be their main sponsor.
JJ
17th February 2020, 16:00
Pretty good. I was thinking Gleem Toothpaste.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
17th February 2020, 8:19
I hope the FW43 gives some good lap times. The question isn’t so much “how bad are the lap times” as “where’s the car?”. If the car isn’t ready then I suspect most fans would take that as a bad sign.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
17th February 2020, 8:35
Good luck to them.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th February 2020, 8:51
Looks like those generic F1 cars you found in non-licenced games: very neat and simple. Which, in modern F1, isn’t a good sing.
The livery looks great, tho. I hope they have a much better season.
jamt
17th February 2020, 8:59
I would like to see this car at COTA.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th February 2020, 13:40
@jamt Well, it is going to race at COTA later in the year.
Nitzo (@webtel)
17th February 2020, 9:03
That is a particularly refreshing livery. Or maybe i just drink a lot of Pepsi !!
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
17th February 2020, 9:07
Strongly reminds me of the Williams livery from the ’98 or ’99. Enough said about the team’s search for their own identity.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
17th February 2020, 16:49
@pironitheprovocateur Not in the slightest. Search for identity aside, those liveries were horrendous. The colors just didn’t fit togetherness it all looked like a mess. This livery on the other hand is beautiful and harmonious.
And coming back to that identity search, who cares? Searching for “identity” is a pastime for rich kids, while the modest folk think about where to get bread and butter from. Glad Williams found some.
Scottie (@scottie)
17th February 2020, 20:58
I’m kinda with @pironitheprovocateur on this one…
With this livery, they’ve moved away from the blue and white identity they have run with for year and years. Seeing red in a sizable quantity immediately put the ’99 car in my mind, which was a time when they were again finding their identity having lost the Renault factory V10’s.
All the other teams have a clear identity and fundamental colour scheme they still manage to rotate partners logos with. Alpha Tauri have just gone through a change of name and brand, but Williams haven’t. Rokit were happy with the blue presentation last year, but seems like they alone wanted red, and Williams rolled over.
I hope things aren’t desperate in Grove.
vjanik (@vjanik)
17th February 2020, 9:34
That livery is WAY better than last year.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
17th February 2020, 9:51
That’s a beautiful livery. Hopefully that’s not the best thing about the car.
RB13
17th February 2020, 10:16
Im surprised at all the comments saying it’s a vanilla design. Those sidepods are a work of art and very very tightly packaged. The elements are there, they just need to work out how to maximise them.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
17th February 2020, 10:26
Its a better looking livery than last years but it kinda screams backmarker to me.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
17th February 2020, 10:37
I like this year’s livery as much as I hated last year’s. It looks really nice, not like a tube of toothpaste anymore.
Here’s hoping the car is as good as it looks.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
17th February 2020, 10:39
Forgot to mention – the two-tone halo looks very neat!
RB13
17th February 2020, 11:01
+1 on the halo
2nd best halo livery implementation after Mercedes with their ‘coupe roofline’ look.
step83
17th February 2020, 11:49
Livery reminds of of the 97 arrows (colour scheme wise)
buc
17th February 2020, 12:41
So… Toothpaste livery pt.2?
Jere (@jerejj)
17th February 2020, 13:41
Nice mixture of colors there although a bit weird that Rokit is still a sponsor even though Kubica isn’t in the team anymore.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
17th February 2020, 16:55
@jerejj Orlen are Kubica’s personal sponsor. Now with Alfa Romeo and in DTM with him. Rokit have nothing to do with Kubica
Jere (@jerejj)
17th February 2020, 17:26
@montreal95 Yes, I realized that later. I just mixed them up, so my bad.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
17th February 2020, 17:56
@jerejj Figured as much. Could be worse, I was once actually sure that Rexona were Kimi’s personal sponsor hh
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
18th February 2020, 11:00
@montreal95 Of course they were ;-)
montreal95 (@montreal95)
17th February 2020, 16:52
Beautiful livery! hope the car is at least more competitive than last year.