How new Williams FW45 draws inspiration from F1’s frontrunners

And, whilst there are no real surprises in the design layout, it is interesting to see how the team has taken inspiration from elsewhere on the grid in an effort to re-establish itself as part of the chasing pack.

At the front of the car, there’s a change in nose design, as the tip has been extended forward to meet with the lead element of the front wing’s main plane and invokes a similar feel to what we saw from Ferrari during 2022, as it allows some room to expose the wing’s leading edge.

Shut lines on the nose suggest that there’s an upper vanity panel in place here though, with a smaller internal crash structure. This would allow the team to make changes during the course of the season, should a more aerodynamically efficient solution arise, and is something we saw most of the field do in 2022 in any case.

Scrolling rearward down the car and the most visually different aspect of all of the 2023 challengers is going to be the sidepods, as whilst there were four or five different interpretations at the start of last season, it quickly became clear that some were simply better than the others.

Notably, the downwash style concept, championed by Red Bull and Alpha Tauri from the start of last season is the one that the bulk of the teams have been drawn towards, with Williams no different in that respect.

Williams had already made that switch during the course of 2022, with a new sidepod arrangement just part of the large update package that arrived at the British Grand Prix (above).

One of the major hurdles faced in making that switch was the internal make-up of the FW44 though, with the radiators, electronics and other coolers housed within the sidepods positioned in a way that didn’t allow them to take full advantage of the new bodywork shape.

A ground-up redesign for the FW45, including what will likely be a repositioning of the SIPS has allowed their designers to optimise the bodyworks topography, which is especially notable in the scale of the undercut, as it had previously been abbreviated by the physical limitations imposed by those internal components.

And, whilst the design introduced in 2022 held more similarity overall to the Red Bull concept, it did feature an inlet more in line with the one seen on the Ferrari F1-75, a feature that’s been carried over, albeit improved as part of the more aggressive undercut design.

Williams FW45 sidepod comparison

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