Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson believes improvements to the team’s 2024 Formula 1 car can provide a foundation for next year’s machinery.
The Grove-based outfit have struggled to maintain their fine form from last season, having started the current campaign with an overweight car, as attention has turned to upgrading their infrastructure over the winter.
While upgrades will be added to the car throughout the season in an attempt to make an immediate step forward, teams are forced into resource-efficient strategies due to F1’s aerodynamic testing restrictions and financial regulations.
The situation will become even more complicated over the next 18 months, as attention begins to shift to new regulations for 2026, meaning teams may choose to sacrifice next year’s challengers to gain an edge on the new cars.
“It’s an interesting challenge that’s been talked about for a long time,” Robson said.
“There are elements of 2026 that we can start to look at, not the aerodynamic aspect by regulation, but there are other things that we can start to look at and that process is inevitably ongoing.”
“Aerodynamics will come, although we have managed to do some aerodynamics under the guidance of the FIA, which is helping us understand the regulations. It is always useful to make sure everyone is focused on 2026.”
“But balancing resources not just from today, but several months from now, into the next couple of years, is going to be difficult, but obviously it’s the same for everyone and I’m sure most people will be fully focused on 2026 very quickly from the new year, and it’ll be interesting to see what people do next year.”
Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Regarding the time allocation, Robson added: “I think early next calendar year there will be short periods where the 2026 car comes out of the wind tunnel and that will give us the opportunity, for a day or two, to get the FW47 back on track, then the 2025 car.
“We will try to do that and if we can find a way to improve performance without compromising the 2026 program, of course we will try to do that.”
“But I suspect that this will end very early in the calendar year and that, from a resource and budget perspective, we will focus on the 2026 car.”
Knowing that the focus will change so early in the year presents the opportunity to merge the 2024 and 2025 projects together to maximise development gains, something Robson confirmed he is considering.
The engineer admitted: “It was an interesting project, because I think this year’s car and next year’s car can be considered as a single project.”
“The work on it will finish early next year and it will be a matter of racing it but not using it too much. That has allowed us, partly by serendipity, to take the big updates that are coming and introduce them quite late in the year, knowing that they will actually inspire or become the basis for next year’s car.”
“This is already starting to unload some of the work. We have brought forward some of the work on the FW47, which will allow us to focus on the 2026 car as soon as possible.”
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