The Williams FW41 which was revealed to the world today is significantly different looking to its 2017 predecessor largely due to the fact that this year’s car has direct input from the team’s Chief Technical Officer Paddy Lowe and Head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer.
The duo joined forces with Chief Designer Ed Wood to conceptualise, design and oversee the production of the team’s 2018 challenger – the FW41.
Lowe said at the launch of the car, “It is very exciting to be giving everyone the first look at the FW41. It is the product of some great teamwork across the various functions in the organisation including aerodynamics design, vehicle dynamics, race engineering and systems engineering.”
“The car has many new features, most of which are not all that obvious, but externally the team has pursued a very different aerodynamic concept which has allowed us some significant progress in aerodynamic performance.”
“All Formula 1 cars are an evolution of what has gone before to some extent, but the FW41 does involve a number of departures from the directions that have been pursued in the past.”
“Overall, the philosophy we are starting to see emerge is a new approach to the collaboration between aerodynamics and design to achieve the optimum working result.”
“Aerodynamics, structure and weight are the three major trades to be made in designing a Formula One car, and all the work, alongside a number of radical changes to the car’s packaging to incorporate further developments from Mercedes HPP, have led us to the FW41 being revealed today.”
“We hope that this car will make progress in the performance rankings relative to 2017 and feel we have made some really good steps with the new car. We are trying to achieve an element of step change and not just progression.”
“We were two seconds a lap slower than the front-runners last year, and that is something we would like to close up considerably. We were looking for a step change, and I hope we have delivered a strong element of that in this car.”
With regards to the youngest driver line-up on the grid next season, Lowe said, “The whole technical team is also feeling very positive about our two talented young race drivers with the combination of Lance and Sergey, alongside the contribution of Robert as our reserve and development driver.”
Big Question: Is the Williams FW41 good for the top four?