After only revealing their 2023 livery last week, Williams have officially shown to the world what their actual 2023 car looks like, ahead of an incredibly important season.
Williams posted photos of the actual FW45 to social media on Monday morning, moments before the team began their official shakedown test at the Silverstone International Circuit.
Both Alex Albon and rookie Logan Sargeant will get a short period of time each behind the wheel of the Grove-based team’s 2023 car, ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The side’s shakedown test will have a noticeable figure missing, with new team principal James Vowles still on gardening leave following his departure from Mercedes.
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Vowles is set to begin his new role at Williams on February 20, just three days before pre-season testing gets underway.
2023 is a massive year for Williams, with the historic side having returned to the foot of the Constructors’ Championship last season, after having claimed eighth in 2021.
Williams therefore enter the forthcoming season having finished last in four of the last five years, a run they’ll certainly not be wanting to continue.
The start of the season is likely to be incredibly challenging for the team, given that Vowles is new to the team principal role and with Sargeant having little experience.
To make matters worse for the first American driver since 2015, he’ll only get three days of testing maximum at Bahrain, with pre-season testing having been reduced from six days, to three.
With this in mind, Sargeant will likely feature at the back of the field at least until he’s fully up to speed, meaning that Albon will likely be responsible for any points.
Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson has labelled the team’s FW45 as an “evolution” of its predecessor, one that’ll hopefully be able to compete in the midfield.
“It’s philosophically an evolution,” Robson said at the team’s launch, as reported by Autorsport.com.
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“Obviously the regulation changes around the floor dominate some of it, and then I think the other thing that you’ll find that is most obvious is a bit of an update to the sidepod package, which is an evolution of what we did for the Silverstone upgrade package [in 2022].
“But we were a bit constrained then by the radiator layout and not wanting to completely change that. So, we’ve had an opportunity to work on that and lay things out a little bit differently. But they’re probably the main visible things.
“But, philosophically, it’s an evolution.”