The new Williams FW44 for the 2022 season has been, without a doubt, the great surprise of the Formula 1 tests in Barcelona. The Grove team, which was eighth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2021, has looked directly into the eyes of the regulations that usher in a new era of the category, with single-seaters in ground effect.
It has laid the foundations to return to the glory that characterized it, after several years of serious difficulties that led it to the back of the grid and to have serious financial problems.
Things have changed following the takeover of the team by the Dorilton group in 2020 and the arrival of Jost Capito as CEO. The German brought in Francois-Xavier Demaison for technical direction, who had already been with him for Volkswagen’s successes in the World Rally Championship, and thus began the gradual ascent.
The FW44 is a ground-effect car born with few resources, but one that can be carefully developed, thanks in part to the damages that the English courts have imposed on the team’s former sponsor, ROKit, and the arrival of Duracell. The single-seater immediately showed a strong personality, since it presented, like Mercedes, an F1 with very small pontoons, almost non-existent.
This extreme sidewall design was made possible by a study of a chassis featuring an unconventional monocoque: Williams decided to take up all the space allowed at the base of the tank area, then taper towards the top, with a section triangular reminiscent of Gordon Murray’s achievements with the Brabham BT42 and BT44.
This choice has allowed the Grove team to design a car that is very slim on the flanks. Add to this the fact that they have removed two radiator packs from the sidepods and positioned them above the Mercedes engine to form an open V, and you can understand why there are minimal side panels above the Venturi channels that they compete with the Mercedes W13.
The side pontoons are very steep, and the bottom surface is extremely large. Demaison engineers have gone beyond the aerodynamic options chosen by Mercedes, allowing themselves an additional option, already during the Silverstone shakedown, it was seen that the FW44 has a particularity, an anti-intrusion cone inside the air intake that separates the flow in two.
On a fast track and with a cool temperature like Barcelona, Williams has allowed himself the luxury of lowering the cone to allow air to pass over it, as can be seen inside the pontoon (marked with a red arrow), to fuel the Coanda effect and direct the airflow towards the huge floor.
It is clear that on hot tracks, such as Bahrain, this option will not be used to take full advantage of the cooling function. In these cases, the cone will be covered with a carbon plate (highlighted in the circle in the lower left corner).
This solution, and the bulge of the lower anti-intrusion cone (marked with the white arrow), which is part of the side panel design, are proof that the FW44 is the result of a precise aerodynamic study from the design phase. He suggests that at Grove they have clear ideas about development, allowing themselves to use modular car concepts from a top team and being aware that they are a team that aspires to grow towards the chaotic mid-table.
The two Williams drivers, Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi, were in the middle of the timesheets, confirming with good performances the fact that their car seems to have been born with healthy and interesting concepts.
An example of this is offered by the fact that already during the first day of preseason testing, the FW44 sported a striking round hole on the trailing edge of the bottom to try to combat porpoising .
Williams had already noticed and analyzed this phenomenon at Silverstone, so it arrived at Montmeló with a quick and hastily adopted solution, while the competition had to test the modifications they made on the ground.
It seems that those from Grove did a good job in the hope of being able to fully exploit the Mercedes engine, considered the most powerful of all during the last years of competition.
