Williams appears to be back on the right track, with the car build timed perfectly and running fine on the first day of testing. But what exactly is differerent on their new FW43 compared to the troubled 2019 car?
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I don't think this really shows why the car appears to be so bulbous in the upper mid section. Is expansion room necessary there to draw air through the radiators/intercooler?
Could just be that they simply put more cooling in this area than other teams do. It's also a cooling efficiency thing - they need more volume to cool as efficiently as Mercedes does, so their sidepods are a similar size to the Merc's but engine cover is a lot bulkier. Even so, this area is still way slimmer than last year. Have a look at these pics (Ignore the highlighted suspension bits, I nicked these photos off the main Williams story).
That's already been posted, but it's worth noting that that was five races into the season versus day one of testing.
We can probably safely expect a better delta by Spain this year. Question is where that puts them in the mix.
Looks like the nose is the one unchanged part from the FW42.
The goat belly is actually a very nice organic shape, I think it resolves the conflicting demands of having four different flow streams around there - under, over, side, of sidepod, and the more horizontal flow along the side of the airbox/central spine - being almost circular in cross section air is never going along the 'wrong' vector.
the four immutable forces:
static balance
dynamic balance
static imbalance
dynamic imbalance
Does anyone know if the gearbox casing is still metal or have Williams finally gone carbon?
It’s clearly still all-metal.
So is that the gearbox casing that you can see on the cover-off photo above? There's so much packed in there these days I wasn't sure what I was looking at
Does anyone know if the gearbox casing is still metal or have Williams finally gone carbon?
It’s clearly still all-metal.
So is that the gearbox casing that you can see on the cover-off photo above? There's so much packed in there these days I wasn't sure what I was looking at
Yes
"Stupid people do stupid things. Smart people outsmart each other, then themselves."
- Serj Tankian
That's already been posted, but it's worth noting that that was five races into the season versus day one of testing.
We can probably safely expect a better delta by Spain this year. Question is where that puts them in the mix.
Looks like the nose is the one unchanged part from the FW42.
The goat belly is actually a very nice organic shape, I think it resolves the conflicting demands of having four different flow streams around there - under, over, side, of sidepod, and the more horizontal flow along the side of the airbox/central spine - being almost circular in cross section air is never going along the 'wrong' vector.
Of course it's too early to tell, but in comparison to last year the car's body language looks a lot more predictable, to say nothing of them being there with a car. If the problems from last years cars can be either diminished or eradicated (unpredictable cornering) they could find themselves in the mix with Haas/Alfa.
So, without wishing to pour cold water on what was in most respects a pretty positive test for Williams, should we be worried about the engine issues on Thursday and Friday? Was it purely a Merc related issue or might there be something in the installation that the PU doesn’t like? Remembering all the cooling problems on the FW41 with some trepidation.
