Williams restrained: 'Difficult to say how much we've clawed back'

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams, has somewhat tempered expectations for next season. Speaking to GPBlog and others in a press conference, Robson explained what the team is working on, both this year and in the long term.

For a couple of years now, Williams has been struggling in the rear of Formula 1. Since 2018, the team has only once failed to finish last. George Russell, Alex Albon and substitute Nyck de Vries have shown that there is something to be achieved with the car, but overall Williams still cannot make much progress.

Robson doesn't quite dare say yet whether that will be different this year. "In terms of differences to FW44 the whole car is an evolution in terms of its visible appearance," the Brit explained. "Otherwise you'll see it soon, but the most obvious change from last year is around the side pod shape, which is something we started processing part way through last year. It's difficult to know exactly how much we've kind of clawed back. It really depends how that stands up relative to everyone else. I think we've seen the simulator, we've started to work quite well on some of the issues that would barely stand out to the drivers last year. So we're hopeful that will materialize on track and quite quickly turn into lap time."

'We need to prepare ourselves for the next few years'

In any case, it is clear that at Williams the focus is on the long term and not specifically on next season. "Our objective, this year, is about building the foundation now," Robson explained.

"Really taking that step forward. Really taking the next step forward. We've got a lot of small things behind the scenes to get in place and then in the future you will see that. We’ve got Logan and Alex to work on and generally get ourselves ready for the few years ahead. Obviously we had to set some objectives in terms of what we needed from the car. We're seeing those come to fruition and simulations from there. We'll see how everyone else has reacted and we’ll go from there."