The British team revealed that its first car for the new era of Formula 1 rules was undergoing shakedown testing at Silverstone.
Following that test, which was apparently delayed by an hour because the team discovered an electronic problem that needed to be corrected, Williams showed a series of rendered images of the FW44 livery, predominantly dark blue with flashes of sky blue and red replacing the white striped livery. , blue, yellow and black in his 2021 car.
Red Bull followed the same path to reveal the colors of its RB18 last Wednesday, but the team with which Max Verstappen won the title last year preferred not to publish images of its actual design, as Williams has done in a video call that the director Jost Capito met with the media shortly before the FW44 took to the track for shakedown.
Asked why Williams hadn’t decided to show the FW44 livery even in rendered shots of the livery the team is testing at Silverstone, Capito said: “Because we worked on the livery and we wanted it to be perfect and that’s why we could only show it on the show car, because it took a while to do.
“And the race car itself is getting ready. It looks like after the unveiling we can go out on track and then we’ll show some photos of that car as well.”
“We just wanted to show something appropriate in the decor.”
(See photos of the FW44 featured here before reading more)
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo credit: Williams
Photo credit: Williams
Photo credit: Williams
Photo credit: Williams
Photo credit: Williams
Photo credit: Williams
Photo credit: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Photo by: Williams
Three years ago, Williams was late for the start of pre-season testing after the FW42’s design and build process dragged on and missed two and a half days of track work as a result.
But that scenario seems unlikely to repeat itself in 2022 given the schedule for the car’s shakedown at Silverstone, with Capito saying Williams’ pre-season preparations were still “according to plan”.
He added: “[The FW44] should have been out on track a bit earlier today, but we had an electronics issue that had to be resolved and it set us back a bit more.”
“We start at two instead of one, that’s all. And I accept this one hour delay!”
