Williams has become the second Formula 1 team to reveal its new car for the upcoming season.
The team held an event at Silverstone to present its Mercedes-powered FW47. The car has been revealed in what the team calls a “bespoke one-off livery”. It will uncover its definitive livery at F1’s official pre-season launch event in London next week.In their third year under the leadership of team principal James Vowles, Williams have made two significant changes. The first is the hiring of ex-Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jnr, a four-times grand prix winner. He takes the seat Logan Sargeant occupied at the start of last year before he was dropped at mid-season and replaced by Franco Colapinto.
Sainz was chosen to drive the first two laps in the FW47 on the short version of the Silverstone circuit. “Everything went fine, which is good news,” he said afterwards. “An install lap for a newly-born car is always a bit tricky, but everything worked as it should and now we’re ready to get into the run plan.”
The second major change at the team is the arrival of the team’s first title sponsor since 2019, Atlassian, which was announced earlier this week. Vowles said the importance of the team’s first title sponsorship deal for five years should not be underestimated.
“In the history of Williams this is by far – nothing, anything close to it – the biggest partnership we’ve ever had,” he said. “It’s probably one of the biggest, full stop, in the sport or in sports.”
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The FW47 was designed under the new technical team Vowles has put in place since he joined the team from Mercedes. They include chief technical officer Pat Fry and design director Matt Harman, both of whom joined the team from Alpine.
“You’re going to see us progress forwards but what I’ve always said is we’ve put our focus into ’26, ’27 and ’28,” he said. “We’re developing elements that come online as a result of that. We have this year huge infrastructure changes that come online. We had 700 people, over 1,050 today, and we’re not finished yet. There’s a lot more in the pipeline.
“That’s all happening in the background and what I want to make sure that we’re doing is not taking just the short-term, little bit of gain at the cost of long-term. We’re here to make sure we’re back to winning championships. To do that will take a little bit more time. But that’s the investment we’re doing.”
Pictures: Sainz driving the FW47 at Silverstone
Video: Sainz driving the FW47 at Silverstone
Carlos Sainz Jnr puts the first two laps on Williams' new FW47 on the short track at Silverstone.#F1 pic.twitter.com/3nmfWn5CCg
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) February 14, 2025
This article will be updated
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Coventry Climax
14th February 2025, 10:47
I’m sure many will find the car looks boring, but I like this British, subdued livery, just as I like British Racing Green over the flashy colours that certain brands use in order to appear fast or faster, just like using stripes does – we had a brilliant comment on that recently. It’s why I like Jaguars and Astons over German and Italian cars, with certain Maserati’s (that look quite like Astons actually) maybe the exception. I like loud, but in music and engine sound, not in style.
The only thing that matters to determine if a car is fast, is the amount of time it takes to get it to do a couple of laps.
Let’s hope this car -or any of the others for that matter- lives up to that.
Taste – no accounting for it.
Dex
14th February 2025, 14:19
British subdued liveries, like i.e. McLaren’s? I don’t think this has anything to do with nationality, but sponsors and good taste. Although I wish Williams used brighter blue colour, like in the past. This is too dark for my taste, and half-violet.
Coventry Climax
14th February 2025, 17:17
Not what I meant. And you probably know it. Or should know, reading the rest of it.
anon
14th February 2025, 18:22
Coventry Climax, rather than your rather rude response, maybe you should ask if instead you’ve done a rather poor job of explaining yourself and consider whether that poster is unable to understand what point you were trying to make in the first place?
El Pollo Loco
15th February 2025, 2:17
IDK. Dex’s response seemed a little condescending in the first place.
Coventry Climax
15th February 2025, 11:34
Gees man, grow up. This is not the almighty Anon F1 show.
How many ‘I like’ s do you read in my post? (Or could have read if you’d taken the trouble to actually read instead of instantly go blind with rage over anything I say.)
And then it ends with the word ‘taste’.
That’s all the point there is, me liking the look, and sort of telling why.
sato113 (@sato113)
14th February 2025, 22:11
You do know this is a ‘bespoke one-off’ livery?
El Pollo Loco
15th February 2025, 2:40
Not really. Their regular livery will be very close. BTW, teams describing liveries as “bespoke” is nearly as silly as if a skater called their board’s graphics bespoke. “This handcrafted vinyl sticker signifies my love of big air + nacho cheese into one. Melding the sun and cheese wheel, shows how high one must get to take a bite. Moving on to the tail: notice the retro color scheme on this Mountain Dew corporate logo. Stunning, right?”
Coventry Climax
16th February 2025, 2:02
And how exactly does either a ‘one-off’ or a ‘millions-of-it’ impact whether you’re allowed to say you like it or not?
SteveP
15th February 2025, 9:30
Next door, 1970-something, brand new Lada Riva* in beige, with “go-faster-stripes” – don’t think they quite nailed the “flashy colours”
Or the street cred :)
*IIRC, but it definitely had the pre-rusted, with paint over.
Coventry Climax
15th February 2025, 19:19
Pre-owned by the man himself, Niki Lada?
Jere (@jerejj)
14th February 2025, 11:09
The PU cover looks interesting in both the FW47 & MCL39.
Possibly a grid-wide 2025 trend.
theRealMax (@millionus)
14th February 2025, 11:35
I guess the Merc and RB high shoulders are finally a thing of the past. They did not look good.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
14th February 2025, 11:19
Not sure id be wasting money on one off liveries with a budget cap and RBR getting caught out by giving staff a lunch voucher but it looks good enough in a post tobacco livery high point sort of way
El Pollo Loco
15th February 2025, 2:23
The teams are REQUIRED to have a special one off launch livery. Williams did basically exactly what you wanted and got around spending extra $ by basically just running their normal livery.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
15th February 2025, 12:43
They said it was a one off livery, i took that as read
Matt (@hollidog)
17th February 2025, 13:38
The application of paint and stickers does not count towards the cost cap per section 3.1(a) of the financial regulations
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
14th February 2025, 11:58
Admiring the confidence: Look at all our big logos.
Wonder if the real car will be white, like the race suits. We’ll find out at the Milennium Dome NF1L Super Season Launch. I hope the teams paint their show cars in each other’s colours, then we’ll see if we can really tell them apart.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
14th February 2025, 16:11
Wouldn’t it be great if they all painted their cars in an identical livery for the “Super Launch” just to make Liberty look like the money grubbing bums they are ;)
Wer
14th February 2025, 12:46
Those livery designers are so clueless it hurts to look at.
They put so much effort into putting those useless little black lines and glitches on the dark blue background, as if those didn’t all blend together from just 5 metres away.
The car will just look blue with black wings and floor. And good so, because all those cluttered chaotic details constitute nopthing but annoying visual noise to the eyes when you look at it from up close.
Zach (@zakspeedf1team)
14th February 2025, 13:07
Totally agree. I like the shade of blue, but combined with black it just looks unappealing as a whole.
SteveP
15th February 2025, 21:45
Maybe the “chaotic details” have a 3D presentation that acts similarly to dimples on a golf ball, or the dimpled pattern that was used for a while on competitive swimsuits?
Go-faster-stripes that actually work… ???
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
14th February 2025, 14:03
Sheesh, that is one BORING livery! Looks like it’s from a lesser series.
Maybe it’s intentionally ’conservative’ and Williams are attempting to keep their head below the parapet until on-track performance improves? If that’s the case, I’ll let them off. Otherwise… zzzzzzzzzzzz!
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
14th February 2025, 14:26
It’s just a test livery…
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
14th February 2025, 15:08
Ah, I didn’t get the memo!
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
14th February 2025, 16:23
On the livery.
Liberty have told teams they are unable to show the proper 2025 liveries until the launch event next week.
Williams wanted to do this shakedown with the 2025 livery as they have new sponsors and apparently a new livery to go with them which they wanted to show off but Liberty told them that if they wanted to run the car they had to it in a substantially different livery.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
16th February 2025, 12:55
Is anyone else running their new car before the launcheroo? I know some won’t be – shame, I’d have liked to see a black Ferrari.
SteveR (@stever)
14th February 2025, 16:47
Well, at least they’ve got a running car before the first test days.
Unicron (@unicron2002)
14th February 2025, 19:35
After their season in 2024 presumably the brief for Williams’ new livery is:
Car must still look good even with the rear wing hanging off, all 4 wheels deranged and smoke rising off the rear bodywork.
bull mello (@bullmello)
14th February 2025, 20:04
Best wishes to Williams!
El Pollo Loco
15th February 2025, 2:19
Looks exactly like their normal livery.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
15th February 2025, 8:49
I wouldn’t mind a bold yellow air intake on that.
Plus, Carlos Sainz could have his number prominently displayed too – “Red 55”.