F1 | Williams: How extra weight affects the clock and budget

It was precisely in the last stage in Monaco that the first points arrived for Williams, thanks to a good ninth place which allowed them to abandon the last position in the constructors’ championship, moving away from Sauber, still stuck at zero. However, compared to a year ago, there are five points missing from the scoreboard for the Grove team, thanks to a single-seater which, although it has improved in various aspects, has lost those superpowers that had helped it perform well on very fast tracks.

If in 2023 Alexander Albon was able to materialize the high top speeds and certain aerodynamic peculiarities of the FW45, taking it to points on various tracks, this year’s car proved to be more concrete on a wide range of tracks.

However, there is a central aspect limiting the performance of the FW46, namely the fact that the 2024 car still has to reach the minimum weight limit set by the technical regulations. This was revealed a few weeks ago by Team Principal James Vowles, who explained that, ironically, in an attempt to reduce the weight of the frame, the team had to opt for compromises on other parts, thus ending up overweight.

Since 2019, Grove’s cars have always been overweight. However, in the current technical cycle this theme has an even more central role and, precisely for this reason, Williams has pushed on the accelerator to accommodate the chassis, well above the minimum weight. This is an issue that cannot be underestimated, also because the body should remain largely unchanged also from a 2025 perspective, so having an overweight chassis would also have a negative impact on next year, the last one before the 2026 regulatory revolution.

14 kg removed from the chassis, but the FW46 is overweight

There was, therefore, a dedicated focus on the chassis, but arriving at a good compromise required great efforts and a lot of time, especially in terms of design and analysis of the stress tests to verify that all the parameters were in order from the point of view of safety. It is almost a reverse process to that of the Alpine 2024: the French team at a certain point decided to strengthen the chassis with other carbon skins following the failed tests in winter, increasing the weight, while Williams chose to give yourself more time to find a good compromise between technical characteristics and weight.

“Obviously, removing so much weight from the chassis was a huge effort, but it was important for us to do it because it will continue to be used next year without major changes,” said Dave Robson, underlining why the Grove team’s efforts were concentrated on the chassis. .

However, focusing so much primarily on chassis development also meant leaving less time and resources for the design of other elements. At that point, given that there are deadlines set to prepare the car in time for the tests and for the first events of the season, the team had to make choices, sacrificing the development of some elements which, in fact, proved more demanding than necessary. Also for this reason it should not be surprising that the accumulated delays meant that Williams found itself having a spare chassis only in the sixth race of the world championship in Miami.

The chassis of the FW45, the 2023 single-seater, from which 14 kg have been removed

“The chassis design took longer than necessary, but it was necessary. This essentially means that production is delayed, as is the schedule for all other parts. At that point, the only way to reduce time is to make things heavier than necessary.”

“With hindsight, I think we would have made certain choices again, we would have done the chassis exactly as we did, but we would have also concentrated more on other components. In particular, we would have made those carbon parts earlier, while the dedicated sector in the factory was still relatively quiet, it could have been done when we were still working on the frame to reduce weight”, said the head of the performance department of the Grove team .

The extra weight costs 3/4 tenths

As suggested by Robson himself, being overweight with the car, especially at the beginning of a technical cycle, is not necessarily a bad choice if it is made consciously. Maybe you focus on a certain fundamental element from which you think you can get something more, leaving other pieces in the background knowing that you can work on them later. This is the reasoning also made by Williams, if it weren’t for the fact that he wasn’t in the initial plans, but only took over at a later time, when the team realized they were late.

Thanks to this rather aggressive program, according to Vowles the team managed to remove 14 kg from the chassis. An important figure, but clearly this “weight loss” process has pushed the team to be much more conservative on other elements. The end result, according to Vowles, is that the FW46, in the configuration in which it raced up until the Miami GP, proved to be heavier than last year’s single-seater, which, according to Williams data, cost almost four tenths of a second alone. for the weight.

Alex Albon, Williams FW46

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

An estimate also confirmed by Robson, which had an important effect if we consider that in the first part of the championship, when the rival teams had not yet brought aero updates, the teams in the second part of the grid were within just a few tenths of a second. While Racing Bulls and Haas were able to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them, Williams, on the other hand, had to deal with their limitations. In fact, the additional weight, in addition to having a pure effect in terms of lap time, also limits balancing opportunities and places greater stress on the tires.

“I think if you take 3-4 tenths off the car we started the season with, the car wasn’t that bad. But in the meantime two things happened. I think most of the teams that were overweight have resolved it [come l’Alpine, ndr]. We have done something, but not much, and moreover we have not updated the car because we are behind on other things and with the production of parts after the damage from various accidents. So we were left behind.” In Monaco we saw glimpses of what the FW46 can do on a circuit where the effect of the greater mass has less impact, but it is clear that a specific program to reduce weight is needed, which began in Imola.

The effect on budget cap and new pieces

To put on the scale there are not only the delays accumulated in the winter, but also all the damage caused by the various accidents in the first part of the world championship. The team was therefore forced to make choices on several fronts, having to choose between the production of stocks and the design of new, lighter parts. For example, the need to fix the chassis damaged in Australia by Albon further slowed the team down. All this also has a specific weight on the budget cap, given that part of the resources were diverted to understand how to reduce the mass of the car. It is no coincidence that Logan Sargeant was forced to ride with pieces from last season in some Grands Prix, with only Albon able to enjoy the new features.

The winger brought to Monaco by Williams. Only Albon had the last example, while Sargeant had to exploit old parts

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“Obviously the incidents at the start of the season didn’t help. Now we’re trying to figure out where we can save weight. Many things that by their nature are quite heavy are also quite expensive.”

“We’ve taken some weight off some elements as we upgrade components. We have improved performance and, if there is an opportunity to remove weight at the same time, we do so. There are some things where, because we’re just making new parts like new front wings and noses and things like that, we can take a little bit of weight off as we go along and it doesn’t cost us much other than the effort of doing it. , because we would have made those parts anyway,” added Robson, underlining how the team is also forced to evaluate where to intervene in a relationship between costs and benefits.

“So, there are different strands and we try to stay within budget, both in terms of time and cost, which is the best thing. But, obviously, most of the elements to remove weight from take a rather long time to complete. So it takes a long time to get them on track.”