F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Williams 'more cautious than normal' with 2021 race program

Williams is approaching its 2021 season determined to sustain last year's progress, but the British outfit is also cautious about how it will manage its resources ahead of F1's crucial regulation overhaul in 2022.

The sport will usher in a new era next year with a raft a changes aimed at leveling the playing field and improving the spectacle on the track.

Teams have already started work on their future designs, but for Williams, which aims to make another step forward this year, running this season's race program as well as possible while also making sure it will field the best possible car in 2022 will require a fine balancing act in terms of resource allocation.

"It's [the 2022 rules] a great opportunity for all the teams, but it's a great risk as well," explained Williams team boss Simon Roberts, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"But the thing we're focused on is that there's zero carry over from '21 to 22. So you can't be late with anything.

"The simplest part, which stops you racing, will stop you racing. So we're being more cautious than normal with our programme.

"We're working backwards from the first race in 2022, looking at what we need to have in place [then], what we need for the winter test, and then taking that all the way back through the development programme to figure out how much space and capacity we have across the whole organisation."

Roberts expects the crossover point at which Williams' engineers will devote the entirety of their focus to their 2022 contender to occur well before the mid-summer.

"We definitely have time, people, windtunnel and CFD availability in the early part of the year to develop the '21 car, and that's what we're going to do," he said.

"There will be a crossover point. If you said: 'When is the crossover point?' I don't know. But it's not going to be August - we'll be well into the 100 percent 2022 [car development] before August.

"But it's not the end of January either. Somewhere in that range, we'll cross over."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Marko: ‘No chance at all’ for Red Bull in Las Vegas

Helmut Marko believes that Red Bull and Max Verstappen are unlikely to challenge for victory…

2 hours ago

GM revives bid to join F1 with accelerated talks for 2026 entry

Automotive giant General Motors is reportedly back in the game as a potential entrant in…

3 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

4 hours ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

6 hours ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

7 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

8 hours ago