Williams FW43

[Francesc]

[Lotus102]

A fair bit of daylight under the rear end! I know Williams customarily runs relatively high rake, but this does seem up there. The cooling outlets are way smaller than the vast maw on last year’s car, so it seems Doug McKiernan’s comments about cooling efficiency are accurate.

[humble sabot]

That's probably how they took the internal volume out of the sidepods too.
One thing I'm surprised about is that they aren't one of the teams that went the Merc route on the nose.

[tomazy]

[Mat-tes]

https://youtu.be/dSHvWqVw9hs

Interesting how the new car has so much more low speed corner stability, both videos are on pare for most of the lap until the final slow corners section and instantly the 2020 lap looks to be jumping a second ahead of 2019.
Yes, conditions are different and I don't know about the tires, but we can see in the main straight the 2020 doesn't use the engine power as much as the 2019.
Now that Williams have clearly moved away from the Mercedes/Paddy Lowe direction and went for a "cleaner" design, maybe the car will behave better than last year.
Airflow down to the diffusor looks to be more important for them than to the rear wing, the side-pod ramp really reminds me of the blown diffusor era Red Bull, lovely flat shape down to the floor. The effect will never be as strong, but the basic principales are still valuables and the large black side-pod top wing will help keep flow attached (something that did not exist during the Red Bull concept).

[Lotus102]

The FW43 looks so much more stable than the FW42 from that video. Much less twitchy with the steering inputs. Obviously a car can be twitchy and fast or stable and slow, but the early signs suggest the design team has got on top of the aerodynamic issues of the last couple of years.

[Lotus102]

That's probably how they took the internal volume out of the sidepods too.
One thing I'm surprised about is that they aren't one of the teams that went the Merc route on the nose.

Again taking Doug McKiernan’s comments about focussing mainly on the areas that would yield maximum results, they probably felt that redesigning the nose would be a lot of work for a relatively small gain? It might be that moving to a narrow nose throws up a lot of new variables - McLaren seems to have taken two or three seasons to make its narrow concept work. I suspect that when done properly it needs the tub to be redesigned at the front end, and I still have my suspicions that Williams is using a pretty similar tub to last year.

[Morteza]

New turning vanes today

[Sevach]

That's probably how they took the internal volume out of the sidepods too.
One thing I'm surprised about is that they aren't one of the teams that went the Merc route on the nose.

Again taking Doug McKiernan’s comments about focussing mainly on the areas that would yield maximum results, they probably felt that redesigning the nose would be a lot of work for a relatively small gain? It might be that moving to a narrow nose throws up a lot of new variables - McLaren seems to have taken two or three seasons to make its narrow concept work. I suspect that when done properly it needs the tub to be redesigned at the front end, and I still have my suspicions that Williams is using a pretty similar tub to last year.

Now all of a sudden everybody is convinced narrow noses are obviously better no questions asked, come on...

[Lotus102]

Now all of a sudden everybody is convinced narrow noses are obviously better no questions asked, come on...

Does seem that way! And Williams get condemned by the tech experts of e.g. The Race because they still have a wide nose. I'm sure Edd Straw and co will be along to demolish Ferrari's chances any moment now too

Interesting that they're evaluating different aero bits already. They must have a good baseline from yesterday on the initial package

[Vasconia]

I don't understand why it's so hard to read or accept the words of the teams themselves.
here you go.

Smedley had left Williams a year before he made those comments. If you look at my post above you'll see that everything coming from current Williams personnel was cautiously positive. In any case, I'm not sure why we should pay too much attention to counsels of despair, especially as I remember predictions from a certain quarter this time last year that Williams would fold before Abu Dhabi

All that aside, it's pretty obvious from today's running that this year is not going to be worse than last year. The car was built on schedule, it's clearly a big step forward in build quality, and handling seems good from the outset - and more importantly, the technical management is not shambolic. I dare say Williams will still be at the back to start with, but is unquestionably in a better state than last year. The internal rebuilding seems to have paid off.

Exactly my thoughts, Smedley's comments sounds empty and out of contest if we look all they aspects you have mentioned.

[Sevach]

Now all of a sudden everybody is convinced narrow noses are obviously better no questions asked, come on...

Does seem that way! And Williams get condemned by the tech experts of e.g. The Race because they still have a wide nose. I'm sure Edd Straw and co will be along to demolish Ferrari's chances any moment now too

Interesting that they're evaluating different aero bits already. They must have a good baseline from yesterday on the initial package

I was just watching a video about it lol, sorry narrow nose enthusiasts but Gary Anderson is on your side, tough break.

[MtthsMlw]

via @vialibreenrue93

[roadie]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EROX-zaUEAU ... name=large
via @vialibreenrue93

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?

[Morteza]

Via AMuS