Williams Report 2022: annus horribilis and return to the depths of the standings

The year 2022 will remain a season to forget for Williams, without neglecting to draw maximum lessons from it for the upcoming 2023, which promises many changes.

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Performance of the race car

The FW44 is undoubtedly one of the biggest failures in Williams’ long history. After finishing in 8th position in the 2021 season, with 27 points and even a podium – thanks to George Russell and his qualifying performances at the Belgian Grand Prix, although the race on Sunday was one of the biggest F1 disappointments – the 2022 season will see them return to the very last position in the standings, with only 8 points accumulated, compared to AlphaTauri’s 35 points, which is ahead of them.

Very often, the two Williams cars were light years away from their competitors, especially Nicholas Latifi who found himself multiple laps behind (too) many times. On the other hand, Alex Albon seemed to be able to make the best out of the FW44, occasionally managing to fight on equal terms with other drivers – without really getting closer to the midfield either.

However, we remember the surprise of Nyck de Vries, who stepped in for Alex Albon at the Italian Grand Prix and scored two points for Williams, finishing in 9th position, far ahead of his Canadian teammate. Despite being very unaccustomed to driving a Formula 1 car, this was proof of the future AlphaTauri driver’s talent, but also of the wasted potential of the FW44 due to Latifi’s driving, who will not be present next season anymore. We will have to see if his successor, young American Logan Sargeant, will not follow the same path…

Reliability

The reliability of the FW44 is difficult to judge due to the piloting errors of drivers Nicholas Latifi and Alex Albon. In fact, while the British team suffered a total of ten retirements this year, nine of them were caused by accidents during the race. In other words, only one DNF was due to a mechanical issue, with Alex Albon’s car experiencing a technical failure during the Monaco Grand Prix.

If we look at the problem from the opposite perspective, it means that the drivers have crossed a combined total of 34 finish lines (out of a possible 44). A ratio that doesn’t seem too bad, but is significantly skewed by the retirements of both drivers due to race collisions. If they hadn’t made so many mistakes, would their FW44 really have been able to finish these 10 races without any technical DNF? Or would they have fallen victim to mechanical or electronic failures? A question that will remain unanswered until 2023 and its many changes…

Optimization of the strategy

One would almost wonder if there was actually a strategy at Williams this year, with a car offering such mediocrity. In reality, the team didn’t put up much of a fight when they realized the lack of potential in the FW44, and quickly gave up. Jost Capito admitted that if things went so wrong in 2022, it’s partly due to the team’s decision to prematurely stop the development of the FW44 to focus on the 2023 season.

When we realized that we would be tenth (in the constructors’ standings), regardless of the gap, we put all our focus on next year’s car. We did it shortly after the major update at Silverstone, recently revealed the team manager.

Undoubtedly a consequence of this bad season, Jost Capito has left the English team at the end of this year, after two seasons spent in Grove following Claire Williams’ departure in 2020. He is not leaving alone, as François-Xavier Demaison, who held the position of technical director, is also leaving. The 53-year-old engineer had joined the Frank Williams-founded structure in 2021.

Among the potential candidates to succeed Jost Capito, we find Susie Wolff, wife of the Mercedes boss, but above all, a former driver and director of Venturi in Formula E for three years, until her departure last year. She was also hired by Williams in 2012 for their car development and participated in a testing session in 2014 at Silverstone. The ideal choice to turn things around for the historic team? Let’s try to see the positive side: when you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up…

Teammate showdown

Qualifications: Alex Albon 18 – 3 Nicholas Latifi

Courses: Alex Albon 17 – 4 Nicholas Latifi

The comparison of teammates is particularly painful for Nicholas Latifi. It is even more so when facing Nyck de Vries, who has collected the same number of points as him (2) in just one Grand Prix, compared to the 20 races contested this year by the Canadian who has been in F1 since the 2020 season.

On his part, Alex Albon was able to occasionally battle with other drivers in the race, as mentioned above. He has thus garnered 4 points this year, which is certainly not much, but it is still double the points of Latifi. And let’s not forget that the Williams was too uncompetitive to vie for the midfield, and thus hope to collect points starting from tenth place.

Therefore, one must look at the final positions in the Grand Prix races to obtain a reasonable comparison of the two drivers. And it’s undeniable: Alex Albon has outperformed his teammate in race results on 17 occasions, compared to just 4 times for Nicholas Latifi. As for the qualifying sessions, the duel is even more one-sided, with Alex Albon securing the best starting position 18 times, while Nicholas Latifi managed it only 3 times.

If we calculate the average race result for each driver, Albon finishes in 13.9th place throughout the year, while Latifi ranks in 16.2nd position. The former Red Bull driver’s average starting position is 15.6th place, compared to the future ex-F1 driver’s 17.4th place. This means that throughout the year, the Thai driver has improved his position from start to finish, while the Canadian has worsened during the race. We don’t want to unnecessarily rub it in, but it was time for Williams to turn the page and give a chance to a new recruit…

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