Williams FW44

[Rodak]

Have you ever seen anything like this? The secondary arm is likely just a track rod. That would make it single wishbone at the top.

I seriously doubt there is a single upper arm; the torque from braking would just twist the whole suspension system into a pretzel. Possibly there is some anti-drive geometry that moved the rear A-arm mount lower so it's not visible at this angle.

[nevill3]

By @f1debrief
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FLqBWpNXEAY ... =4096x4096

The rear floor is wrapped up (disguising details, I guess??).

If you open the image in a new tab you will see that there is no wrapping just an undulating surface that is quite shiny.

[RZS10]

Do any of the other cars have such big cuts in the floor?


I know that the perspective might make it look weirder or more extreme than it is but still ... like the yellow element which looks really big (also compared to the one on the Alfa), looks like a curled up sticky uppy bit

[Just_a_fan]

By @f1debrief
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FLqBWpNXEAY ... =4096x4096

Does anyone else see a thin vortex or perhaps just a stream of water flowing along the top edge of the floor entry? It runs down behind the edge of outer strake/bargeboard-lite device. You can see it below and either side of the hump covering the lower crash structure.

[Stu]

By @f1debrief
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FLqBWpNXEAY ... =4096x4096

The rear floor is wrapped up (disguising details, I guess??).

If you open the image in a new tab you will see that there is no wrapping just an undulating surface that is quite shiny.

Definitely wrapped.

[ChrisM40]

Are Williams doing the same thing as McLaren? Wide side pod front to push air out and seal the floor?

[piast9]

Where's the engine?

Extremely tight rear end packaging reminds me of the FW36:

[tomazy]

I was looking closely at the pictures, and found something strange in the shape of the sidepod. Then I rememberd wondering, why did they split the air in to two inside the sidepods. Then I had a crazy idea that would connect all of this. What if, they are using the upper (green in the photo) part of the air, not for cooling, but just for aero? The sidepods are so steep, that there has to be air separating, but becouse this year the luvers are legal again, they can energise the air to stick to the sidepod. Does this make any sense to anyone? It is hard to explain what I mean.

Pic one, the upper green part has no filter in front like the bottom red one. Red one wuld be for cooling and the green one for aero.


Pic two, the shape of the sidepods is not continious, there is something going on there (i think, or it is a trick of light). I think it is a luver opening for the green air to energise the blue air. Pic three is for comparisson.



If this is indeed the case, this is some outside the box thinking by the designers at Williams.

[wogx]

That yellow part is a side impact protection structure, they must divide that sidepod inlet there

[tomazy]

That yellow part is a side impact protection structure, they must divide that sidepod inlet there

They must or they chose to? What is preventing them to put crash structure in the top of the sidepods? As far as I know, the side crash structure had its minimum hight risen for this year.

[CLKGTR]

HI RES (5732 px) (Photo: Williams Racing Photos / Edited by: MAXF1.net)

[SmallSoldier]

That yellow part is a side impact protection structure, they must divide that sidepod inlet there

They must or they chose to? What is preventing them to put crash structure in the top of the sidepods? As far as I know, the side crash structure had its minimum hight risen for this year.

It could go a bit higher, but maybe it does help where it is for the overall shape of the sidepod… I don’t think is there to channel air to different locations.

The sidepods are apparently also on the small side, so I doubt they are leaving open space as that… We need more / better pictures to understand it.

[roadie]

Maybe top part sends more air to the car centre line?

[vas_04614]

[SmallSoldier]