Starting at the front, the nose is much more convex than we’ve seen on other teams so far, with the upper part of the chassis following a similar design.
The nose tip is connected to the second of four front wing elements, with the main plane sloping downwards in the central region to help direct airflow to the lower part of the region.
The wing itself is probably a marker to make the flow work, as it lacks a few details seen on the other cars that have been released so far, with the exception of the diveplane, which seems to twist more as it goes than on other single-seaters. .
Williams has also opted to move the front brake duct fence and wheel deflectors so they work differently than intended. It seems that the Grove has also gone to the dark side, since a figure similar to that of Darth Vader appears at the entrances of the ducts, helping to cool said section.
However, what has caught everyone’s attention in this year’s cars are the sidepods and the designs that the teams have been revealing. In the case of Williams, this seems quite radical, as they have added more cooling to the centerline of the car, evidenced by the much larger, rectangular airbox, as well as the large engine cover. .
By moving to a center-centric approach, similar to what Red Bull, AlphaTauri or Alpine have done in recent years, it gives more freedom to sidepod design.
In this regard, the FW44 follows its predecessors in creating a very short and steep sidepod, which descends to the ground and bodywork of the engine cover as quickly as possible. The narrow meaning of these parts is evident in the blisters used to cover the two side impact covers when they protrude from the chassis (red arrows).
Williams will use a Mercedes gearbox for the first time this year and, like Aston Martin, which also sources from the Germans for the transmission, they have opted for a pull-rod rear suspension scheme. This suggests that we can expect the same from Mercedes when it introduces the new W13.
The underbody tapers very narrowly at the bottleneck area, presenting a previously seen solution to cooling the car, and one that used to favor teams during the V8 era.
Like their Mercedes counterpart, McLaren, they have also opted for a single, centrally mounted rear wing support pillar linked to the DRS actuator. This is considered a trade-off, as the pillar weighs slightly more to be robust enough to pass bending tests, and provides the advantage of having a single element interfering with the main plane of the rear wing.
Although Williams appears to have some sensors on the rear of the flat bottom, we can see that the ‘mouse house’ door seen on the Aston Martin is also present on the FW44 (blue arrow). This should help overcome the difficulties of having more extreme ground and diffuser geometries, which, in turn, will improve the diffuser edge vortex.
