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.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Pictures: Williams FW46
Video: Williams reveal FW46
The FW46 rolls out in Bahrain 🤩🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/VTxA0ytMWT
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) February 20, 2024
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Formula 1
- Pictures: Red Bull’s aggressive new sidepod design revealed in detail at test
- Pictures: New views of Mercedes W15 running in Bahrain test
- Pictures: 2024 F1 pre-season testing day one: Bahrain
- Pictures: Haas VF-24 officially presented as testing begins in Bahrain
- Driver line-up confirmed for sole pre-season F1 test
GeeMac (@geemac)
20th February 2024, 10:44
This Williams fan is relieved to see the FW46 rolling down pit lane!
Looks like another RB19-alike…probably as everyone expected.
An Sionnach
20th February 2024, 13:53
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!
Dusty
20th February 2024, 16:34
What is this run considered to be? A filming day? Part of official pre season testing? Rookie testing? Tire testing?
BasCB (@bascb)
20th February 2024, 18:35
yes, it’s using a filming day
Dusty
20th February 2024, 18:47
Thanks. Reason I ask is the quote from Vowels in yesterday’s round-up.
I was expecting this would be saved for much later in the year.
Andre
20th February 2024, 19:15
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.
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
20th February 2024, 20:44
Maybe it’s just the angles but there seems to be something weird going on with those side-pods. Tomorrow we will know