Pictures: Williams officially present their new F1 car

2017 F1 cars

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The new Williams FW40 for 2017 has been officially presented by the team ahead of its first testing run on Monday.

The Mercedes-powered car will contest the team’s 40th anniversary season and has been named accordingly.

Previous Williams F1 cars

FW34: The team’s last race-winner debuted five years ago

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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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    67 comments on “Pictures: Williams officially present their new F1 car”

    1. The ugliest shark fin I have ever seen!

      1. You can’t polish a turd, but you can put Martini stripes on a shark fin.

        1. A turd would look pretty good, though!

        2. According to the Mythbusters you can. And Williams better get ahold of them fast, ’cause there’s a lot of polishing to do.

    2. Seems too simple…But after Mercedes,its the most ”normal” car we have seen so far.Hopefully its a good car,and it won;t fall donw the grid any more…

      1. *down

      2. Of course they will fall down. Force india will remain infront. Torro rosso have a 2017 engine. Renault will get into their stride. Honda and Mclaren will do better. Haas may not be as good a car as the williams but the Haas team have way better drivers. Only Sauber look in worse shape, but Wehrlein is more likely to score on a wet day than either Massa or stroll. Williams could well take the wooden spoon

        1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
          25th February 2017, 8:55

          @dimsim Sad but true 😔

        2. On the other hand,Williams still have Mercedes engine,they have 40 millions from Stroll,they will pay only 5 millions to Mercedes for all the engines during the whole season,Mercedes have given them money for Valtteri,they signed Paddy Lowe & Dirk De Beer(especially Lowe is a key player),they focused on 2017 much earlier.Felipe,in the new regs(no tyre conservation),might be as fast as in 2014.As for the other teams,in my eyes,Haas,Sauber,Str will be behind Williams,and i’m not sure about F.I…But hey,the first test are coming in 2 days,we have only 29 days before the first race(!!!!!) so all of our questions will be answered!

          1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
            25th February 2017, 9:49

            I think the company as a whole is in a really positive and stable position but I think this season may be a bit of a nightmare.

          2. @miltosgreekfan

            I feel Toro Rosso could be a dark horse this season. They had the fourth best chassis on the grid last season (almost third best) and with a much improved Renault engine they could be a top four team if their drivers can perform well and reliability is up to scratch. They will surely be ahead of Williams IMO.

            1. @lolzerbob My concern with Toro Rosso is that they don’t seem to have the necessery budget to be competitive during a whole season.Last year they were very good at the start,but as their engine deficit became even more intense,they disappear from the front.I like STR and their young drivers,but i’m not sure if they can keep up with the ”big ones”.Last year they had the 3rd fastest car at Australia and they finished with the 9th fastest at Abu Dhabi.They seem to my eyes as a different team after Vestappen left :/

            2. @miltosgreekfan Not sure where you got STR as being the 3rd fastest in Melbourne. They were 5th fastest at best.

            3. I think it was reference to the fact they were the 3rd fastest car in qualifying.

              I agree that Toro Rosso could be the dark horse, they did have a very good chassis and aero package last year, but even after Bahrain Paddy Lowe had said the Toro Rosso had the least powerful engine on the grid based on GPS data, as the season continued Toro Rosso had to run less and less down force relative to the rest of the grid to stay competitive. Hopefully with a more competitive package we will get to see Sainz challenging for the odd podium.

          3. Wehrlein is still on sick leave and might not be back until the end of March. If Giovinazzi does well then Wehrlein might find himself on the reserve bench.
            In some ways I think Massa has the bigger problem than Stroll because age mixed with high G forces is against Massa, which might mean someone might get an early promotion.
            We saw the Renault “2017” engine earlier this week and it had the same design limitations as the 2015 engine, so either it was Renault trying to fool everyone and had shown the real photos to Red Bull Racing and STR, or it was Renault encouraging Red Bull Racing and STR to shift to Honda power for 2018.

          4. One point. There are a number of rookies/newies out there this year. We need to see stroll perform in F1 as much as we do the others. Let’s see what happens

            1. @mashiat They were equally fast with RBR & slighlty faster than Williams.They finished low in the race due to wrong strategy(in the red flag period).

    3. This looks easily the most simple and least developed car out of all of them. Not sure Williams got the message on the new rules.

    4. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      25th February 2017, 8:40

      Whoa. Hopefully Williams is holding some parts back until testing, or after testing, because this car looks woefully underdeveloped. Almost on the same level of underdeveloped that Manor used to be. Let’s hope that’s not the case.

      1. They have no reason to put their cutting edge parts on the car if they have some simple stuff to put on it. Pace of development is key from now on.

    5. 9th place in the constructors championship beckons for this stale outfit

    6. Compare this and the new Ferrari! Huge difference in terms of aero. Hope this is just the show off package. Black rear wing looks like having no wing at all.

    7. While it looks too simple I like the look of it a lot, many rate the pre1994 cars very high due to their simplicity. This car has clean sweeping lines and a very nice Martini livery. On top they have sponsorship on the side pods as well.
      Looks great!

    8. That’s a freshen up for the livery as far as I’m concerned. I now like it all over again. As for the structure of the car…😍 I like it…Excellent bit of body work and love that flow of the side pod. Otherwise agreed that this is the most normal looking car.
      Also like the way they have managed to disguised the shark fin very well…Considering that it’s as unshapely as force indias

    9. Those fins have to go, they could have at least made them the same height as the wing.

      1. Agree. But if they were the same height as the rear wing, they wouldn’t be as effective and hence wouldn’t be needed. Which would be a very good thing.

        However, if F1 aero-nauts are determined to race billboards, suggest they go full nautical and make the fins into moveable aero-rudders. DRS on the straights and URS in the turns. (Understeer Reduction System). It’s what the fans would want. But with more orange.

        2009 can’t come soon enough…er…2020.

    10. Oh man, the incorporation of the Martini logo is so bad. And it’s such a great logo to design your livery around. It’s pretty much a plain white car with Martini on the shark fin to make it look bigger and uglier. I like the black wings though.
      McLaren are the only once to have done it [shark fin] right.

      Apart from that, the car looks ok – it fits the narrow generic paradigm of the 2017 cars, with only Ferrari having done stuff to make their car look more ugly.

      1. I agree, the livery highlights the ugly shark fin. Whereas I see the McLaren design as by far the best. Can we have a poll to choose the best looking car. At this stage I vote McLaren.

    11. Underwhelming but I doubt this car is the one to rock up at Melbourne

    12. I predict 10th place for this team.

      1. @ultimateuzair Probably on the chassis side yes, but Sauber’s 2016 engine will drop them behind a car with a 2017 Mercedes one.

    13. I think looking at this car is making Valtteri Bottas extremely happy

    14. Didn’t Williams have the slipperiest car in recent seasons whilst lacking down force? This philosophy should enable them to ensure they overcome the drag of the new cars down the straights. The design is very clean, too clean, so we can assume there is going to be a lot of add ons come Monday.

      1. My thoughts exactly; with the Mercedes PU on board it seems like they are heading down the low drag, high straight line speed route. I foresee a few Massa headed trains forming this year!

      2. Yes, I agree with this. I still think WIlliams will have one of the better cars on the grid on particular circuits. Similar to what we saw at Russia, Silvestone, Mexico, and Italy as well as some others. Williams have benefited a lot on certain circuits because of their setup. I still think there may be a chance that they will perform better than most teams at 1 or 2 of these.

        I also somehow doubt that Hass will get a better result than Williams. They basically scored virtually all of the points in the first 2 races and one of them in particular was rather lucky. I’m certain the team will be stronger this year but I think it is pretty much the weakest driver line up and I don’t think they will have improved enough to beat Williams. They had loads of issues with breaks and other problems too. The Mercedes engine is also more reliable so that is another reason I think Williams will beat them. I seem a lot more hopeful than others but I very much doubt that Williams will end up lower than 8th. I also think that if Massa gets his early 2016 form back (which I think he may well do) and Stroll turns out to be good, they may even end up 7th. I just don’t think Williams could suddenly be a whole lot worse than they were last year.
        I am also unsure about Toro Rosso beating Williams. They may have a 2017 engine, but judging from recent seasons, the Ferrari engine has not been very reliable at all in comparison. Neither does is seem to be as fast in a straight line as the Mercedes witch will be a big advantage to Williams at certain tracks. This still makes me think that the Williams will probably be better.

        The teams that I think will beat them are McLaren and Force India. Both of these teams very nearly seemed to be as good as the Williams car by the end of the season. I don’t see why both of these teams won’t come back stronger.

        I’m not even sure on how good the Renault will be. Considering it has the same engine as the Red Bull last year, how can it have been so dreadful in comparison? Can they really make a big enough difference to beat a team that last year had 138 points compared to themselves that got just 8. That chassis must have been really bad last year. I expect the car to be far better than it was and the Williams possibly to be affected by the weak driver line up but I’m still not convinced that Renault will beat them.

        So from what I’ve said, it makes it look like I’m saying Williams could be 6th. I think 7th is more likely but I really do think they will be helped by the money that Stroll gets and also what Mercedes gave them. I seem far more confident in this team than anyone else here. It is my favorite after all! :D

        1. Uhhh wow, that’s a lot of conclusions being drawn before the first day of testing.

          1. @pastaman
            You mean, unlike the umpteen commentators who know Williams will finish 9th or lower?

        2. That’s a heart string puller of a comment @thegianthogweed. And a very patio at one. I join you here in liking this team a lot. And not just because of heretage, because they haven’t performed in my life time, but because of the tenacity of the team.
          Would be good to see McLaren come back up and tussle with an old rival again. But I still hope that Williams manage to pull something off once more. It seems like it’s been too long.

      3. Fran, they have tended to top the speed traps more often than not, but their straight line advantage over their rivals has been diminishing as time has worn on. I believe that there were a few races in 2016 where Ferrari were actually quicker in the speed traps than Williams were, and there were some races where Force India were also quicker too.

        @thegianthogweed, whilst perhaps it is a little too early to say anything definitive about the cars just yet, I do agree that there are signs from other teams that they could have closed the deficit to Williams or potentially overtaken them. We know that Renault have been putting a lot more resources into this year and that Force India have troubled Williams in recent years, whilst behind the scenes there seems to be a lot more confidence at Honda. I can see Williams coming under pressure in the WCC, particularly given that quite a few people here seem to believe that they have one of the weaker driver line ups for 2017.

    15. Like the McLaren, another livery that makes it looks like a van from the side view. F1 needs to drop the shark fins.

      1. Your remark is that the livery makes the cars look like a van and your fix is to drop shark fins. How about they fix liveries?

        1. @danieljaksa
          No. His remark is that shark fins are ugly and the livery can make them look even worse.

      2. He is right, he meant the shark fins make the cars look like a pick up van with a canopy

    16. Looks nice. Better looking than F.I and McLaren. Gut feeling this will be fighting F.I for 8th in the constructors unless the Merc engine is a huge step up on the rest.

      1. Why FI have to fall for 8th? Why not Williams only? Wait till testing starts. All will come out.

    17. Ermmm this looks like a 2016 car rather than a 2017 car. Livery looks gorgeous and the Martini shark fin is nice, but compare this to the Mercedes and you can tell it’s not going to be very fast.

      1. That was my thought also at first there are some modifications around the sidepod but if that is enough?

    18. Looks to simple compared to what we’ve seen so far, but it’s just a presentation so I expect all kinds of wings during testing.
      But the paint job is bland. How can you make one of the most iconic liveries so boring? I know sponsor contract and all but a little change won’t hurt the performance.

    19. I didn’t know Martini had their own fleet of delivery vans!

    20. It looks so simple. Simple is good, as engineers know.

      Unless crucial problems have been overlooked / ignored…

    21. Looks underdeveloped, might have more stuff in the pipeline though. With one of the weakest driver lineups I do worry for Williams this year.

    22. I guess we will have to judge performance when it hits the track. Appearance wise, it doesn’t look too great but could be worse. The Martini stripes still appear like the don’t flow very well. All things aside, quite a neat job

    23. A good car is a clean car at introduction, you do not need al kinds winglets and stuff to tweak te airflow to get the car to work. There for i think Williams is a head of the curve with lots tweaking left over the season to get extra performance while most of the teams already needed to do a lot of tweaking to even get the car to work properly at the start of the season. I would not be suprised to see Williams battle for wins. But wee will only know at the end of the first race.

    24. Oh wow this car does not look very developed. I honestly think FI and TR will leave them in the dust, they may have a few good races where top speed is important. Also the car that last won a race from them, UGLY!!! jesus when i look at it i see how bad it was.

    25. They are low in budget. So I think: maybe they have just waited the others and their presentation, so now they can start taking inspiration or perhaps they can brutally copy the other cars (mainly Mercedes since they share the same engine).
      Then, if it’s true, they would bring a decent “B” car later.
      If this approach works the result is that they didn’t waste money in useless research.

      1. they are not low in budget, not by any means, as lawrence stroll has put a lot into the team as well as decent prize money from 2015 which goes into the 17 car. they also have lowe and de beer joining the tech dept so updates should be pretty decent.

    26. The Martini stripes look fabulous on that shark fin!

    27. Really thought they would shake up the livery a little this year … its starting to look stale… wanted to see less white and more blue and red…

    28. Williams have done an incredible job here! They’ve managed to make a car that looks exactly like those renderings they released last week. They left everything to the imagination with those renderings….and I guess their imagination is that of a minimalist. I really hope they throw on some developed looking bits for Melbourne, although the McLaren looks like a Marussia, it looks like the Williams may perform like one.

    29. Michael Brown (@)
      25th February 2017, 14:37

      At least they decorated the shark fin

    30. I really don’t mind the look of the “shark fins”, but the billboard on the back of this Williams looks a bit daft to me.

    31. I didn’t think it could be made uglier than in the renders but I was wrong. Worst sharkfin so far. This and the Force India are both vomit inducing. Williams is my favorite F1 team but I just can’t root for a car that looks like this

    32. How is it that this car has no barge boards? We’ve seen some very interesting ones on the other cars released so far. Surely they must just not be ready, or Williams didn’t want to show the other teams what they’ve come up with? Seems very strange anyway.

    33. So far everyone, except Mercedes, copied ugly nose cones from last year Red Bull. They should make nose cones entirely low for 2018. Without any holes. So noses would be as nice as FW14-FW16.

    34. I see them as the underdogs of the year, but somehow I hope that Massa might run better in these tires , like he did until 2009. With no pressure at all, he looks to perform better. It would be a good answer to his critics and the people who blamed him for his comeback. That would be nice for Williams and for him. I think this year they might surprise a lot of people. Well, next week we will start discovering if this car is underdeveloped or not! Can’t wait!

      1. Pirelli only started in 2011.

    35. So their “launch” is a few (slightly higher resolution) stills from the video that they released days ago?! Calm down Williams

      Even more low key than what Red Bull are likely to do tomorrow (3 renders, and 3 photos of the car from the front, at slightly different angles, with a group of engineers standing in front of the rear of the car to stop prying eyes)

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