Williams FW46

First pictures: New Williams FW46 debuts in Bahrain one day before test starts

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Williams have become the final team to unveil their new Formula 1 car for the 2024 season.

The FW46 is running for the first time at the Bahrain International Circuit. The team presented a revised livery for the upcoming season two weeks ago in New York on its 2023 car.

Williams finished seventh in the constructors championship last year, which was its best result since 2017. Alexander Albon’s race engineer James Urwin said the improvements the team made to its previous car starting at the Canadian Grand Prix last year was an encouraging sign of its new car’s potential.

“The update we had in the middle of last year largely did what [the designers] said it was going to do, and the Silverstone update,” said Urwin in a video published by the team. “If that’s anything to go by, then this one should be pretty close to what we think it is in here. So if that is the case then it’s exciting.”

He said its drivers need a car with a broader race of strengths. “Hopefully if it’s not these extreme ends of the spectrum where we had to pitch it each week, it should be a bit more consistent track to track and in sprint races and that sort of thing, should help in that respect and so on.”

“I think the key bit is that the car is more drive-able, more together,” added the team’s other race engineer Gaetan Jego. “All the issues we had last year that were sometimes very limiting are much smaller so you are able to drive the car and to do consistent laps more easily, which is quite important.”

Williams have run their new car for the first time on the day before official pre-season testing starts in Bahrain. The 10 teams will share the track for the next three days.

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Pictures: Williams FW46

Video: Williams reveal FW46

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7 comments on “First pictures: New Williams FW46 debuts in Bahrain one day before test starts”

  1. This Williams fan is relieved to see the FW46 rolling down pit lane!

    Looks like another RB19-alike…probably as everyone expected.

  2. Ten teams have spent many man hours and millions of dollars designing and building cars on paper. They’ll soon get to find out whether or not they were wasting their time. Exciting stuff!

  3. What is this run considered to be? A filming day? Part of official pre season testing? Rookie testing? Tire testing?

    1. yes, it’s using a filming day

      1. Thanks. Reason I ask is the quote from Vowels in yesterday’s round-up.

        save that filming day for later in the year where we either need footage or we need some other questions to be answered.”

        I was expecting this would be saved for much later in the year.

  4. Am I the only one struggling to decide if these are real photos or rendered photos? It looks like a game running on high quality graphics settings.

  5. Maybe it’s just the angles but there seems to be something weird going on with those side-pods. Tomorrow we will know

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