Williams FW31 introduced in interim livery

2009 F1 season

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Williams has revealed its 2009 F1 car – the FW31. The team go into 2009 with Toyota engines for the third year in a row.

The FW31 has been presented in an interim livery. Its final paint scheme for the 2009 F1 season will be revealed next month. Pictures of the new Williams below.

Drivers Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima have spent their entire F1 careers with Williams. This is Rosberg’s fourth full season and Nakajima’s second. Nico Hulkenberg is driving the car today.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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45 comments on “Williams FW31 introduced in interim livery”

  1. Interim livery? I’d say, keep this. It’s wonderful!

    1. Agreed!

  2. They’ve managed to keep that car looking clean and simple without making it look… simple.

    I agree about the livery though, it looks lovely.. keep it!

  3. This is the year boys!!

  4. This is a really good looking car. Let’s hope that they can convert these good looks into results on the track.
    Here’s to a great 2009.

  5. Magnificent car, the most beautiful so far…about the livery I agree with you, it’s very cool, I wish they keep it for the races as well..

  6. this has to be one of the best looking cars for a long time….even with big wing/small wing syndrome

  7. Yes, stick with this one Mr Williams….

  8. very nice, i like…like it. I wreckon this should be used for races. Again very nice!

  9. gotta hand it to ferrari for providing a full 360 degree viewer online for everyone to see (f60.ferrariworld.com) what are these other teams doing releasing grainy photos out the front of a dark garage… i mean come on…

    1. If every team had the cash that Ferrari has, I’m sure they would. Williams has been cash strapped for some time and I’m sure they’re not better now in this economy. Their first priority is racing, the parties and everything else is secondary.

  10. Aye, a great looking car indeed – the sleekest of em all. I like the little concave curvature at the front of the nose…it’s like Nico sat on the mould or something!

    And I just seen the new Renault…which is without a doubt going to be the most hideous thing ever to set wheels on any track…ever!

  11. The HOTTEST car so far.Even better than Mc and Ferrari together.Good luck.

  12. Looks great, not quite as tidy as the Ferrari but one of the best 2009 cars I’ve seen.
    I guess its nose is so big because they’ve reinforced it after breaking so many last year.

  13. why is williams’ interm livery alweays better than their boring final livery???

  14. If looks won races……

  15. Love it. 100% agree with thise saying they should use the “interim” livery for the races too…

  16. Very good looking car… I guess it is Ferrari, McLaren & Williams who’s gonna steal the show with the looks :) But let’s see whether all three stay in contention for the titles… I guess McLaren and Ferrari will be there in the top and I wish Williams to be there with them.

    Certainly not Renault, though I like Alonso… I hate them for their new livery ;)

  17. It looks good, but it’s hard to tell exactly when it’s in such a dark livery

  18. They also seem to have gone for a Double Decker front flaps, and their rear seem to be well constructed too. If I’m not wrong, this is the only team working with mechanical K.E.R.S, let’s see how advantageous or disadvantageous it could be!

  19. Slightly off the topic, but can anyone confirm… is it 2009 spec rear wing that McLaren is using at the Algarve Motor Park today??? It looks very flat and wide, for me it looks like a 2008 spec one.

    1. Absolutely that’s a 2008 spec rear wing. Very weird. The only reason I can think of that they’d be running that is to compare the readings they get on the ’09 car using the same wing configuration as they have previously tested on the ’08 car – to set a baseline as it were.

      On a related note, the ’08 spec STR already looks like it’s front wing is too small and the ’08 spec rear wing on that Macca looks strange too. I’m already getting used to these cars, which IMO don’t look anywhere near as bad out on track as they do when they’re photographed in a studio..!!

  20. Best looking car so far. Easily up there with Ferrari.

    Oh and Mani, it looks like a 2008 spec rear wing. No idea why they’d run it though, but if you compare it against the Toro Rosso you can see it’s almost identical in proportions and position.

  21. Looks elegant ! Perhaps a final touch could be some dark metallic green, the British racing colour. Maybe also some CHROME TOUCHES, like in the suspension pieces. This combination of dark green and chrome is a very genuine British historical look, and something Williams could make a little bit of a theme of. This would touch the hearts of many people and further increase the class and prestige of the team.
    It is very important that they keep the silver rims in the wheels, I would even switch to chrome.
    Their sponsors Philips, RBS, Oris are made to look like upscale brands because of this elegant livery.
    Well done Williams ! they deserve the best!

  22. It looks good. Very good even. Keep the livery or don’t change too much and it’ll be just fine. So far in terms of pure esthetics:
    1.MP4/24
    2.FW31
    3.F60
    4.R29
    5.TF109

  23. Nice understated livery – hope it’s close to the finished design.

    But the one thing this car definitely needs is more sponsors. It looks pretty sparse, and that’s bad news for their bottom line.

  24. Wow! I clicked this post so that I can leave a comment saying that this has been the best looking 2009 car I’ve seen so far. To my surprise, most seem to agree with me.

    I do hope they keep this livery. My first thought was that the dark colors hide the uglyness of the shapes of the 2009 cars.

  25. The Williams is the only one that really looks right when viewed nose-on. The others generally look ok at an angle, but not from the front.

  26. I love the look of this car.I feel i like this one even more than the Mclaren one.
    Can’t wait to see it on track and to hear more about their KERS which seems to be different from all the others being used.


    They have also taken the unique decision to produce their own flywheel-based Kinetic Energy Recovery System, in contrast to the battery devices that the rest of the teams have developed.

    @autosport

  27. Not bad. Good to see RBS have not bailed…

  28. Good to see RBS have not bailed…

    No, they’ve been bailed :-D

    1. Yes my friend, every taxpayer in the uk is now a personal sponsor of this fine example of machinery.:)

    2. In which case, I am proud to sponsor the Williams F1 team, and wish them the best of luck for the coming season.

  29. Handsome car, and agree with those that say keep this livery, hope they got some speed with them there looks!!!

  30. Didnt they run a similar livery last year when the launched the 2008 car then changed it for the start of the season, or might be dreaming it!!

    It is up there, there is something about the Mclaren though, I think it is the new nose and the exchaust housing on the MP24 that does it for me!

    here is a pic from your archives
    https://www.racefans.net/2008/01/20/2008-testing-round-up-3/nico-rosberg-williams-toyota-jerez-2008-pre-season-test-toyota/

  31. Not only do Williams look short of sponsors, one of their biggest sponsors RBS today announced record losses and saw a huge fall in their share price.

  32. It will look a lot less handsome once all the white is added.

    Verdict: dark cars look good because you can’t see them!

  33. While I think the car itself looks good, I will disagree with everyone on here about the interim livery.

    Personally I don’t like the interim livery, and wouldn’t mind them going back to the one they used last year. Because the interim livery is dark blue, in pictures it often looks black, and for me black with white writing on doesn’t work.

    Also are any other people finding it hard to make out the details of the bodywork on some of the pictures released so far due to the current paint work?

  34. Looks good, sexiest sidepods so far, but i also liked the autumn BMW sidepods. Amazing how much uglier it looks in the orthogonal renderings.

    BTW, does anyone have a link that explains what all/each suspension piece does? in general F1 terms of course. I’m starting to get a bit confused…

  35. this is my first ever post on this great site. i think the williams looks great, no need to change much of the livery but can anybody tell me if it is my eyes deceiving me or the colour of the car. It looks like the rear wing is lower than the other cars already launched so far?

  36. Just like last season,the Williams with interim livery looks the best by far.

  37. Perhaps they choose this interim livery for stealth reasons. Its very easy to disguise peculiar features of a car when they don’t stand out due to poor contrast with the back ground.

  38. Monotones are the way to go! Ferrari’s have looked classy because of the one colour scheme and the Williams looks ace because of this very reason. This car is fantastic! I’ve always had a soft spot for Williams, accept during the Post Villenueve Pre Montoya days.

    Like Keith said, its interesting how RBS is the primary sponsor of the team when they’ve just tabled the highest loss by any British company ever!

  39. lookks like the bat-mobile! i like this car as well n wish williams success in 2009! (and im not just sayin that cuz my surname is williams!…ok maybe i am lol) i think it looks a littel bulky compared to the sleekness of ferrari and mclaren, but at least it looks like they developed it some unlike renault and bmw. their wings look like templates and just stuck them on with no thought.

  40. also, williams definitely need to find more sponsors! i mean i can give them a grand n put a lil sticker on there somewhere!

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