Williams Adopting a ‘Backwards’ Approach for 2022 F1 Season: Roberts

Williams Racing is looking to hold on to the momentum they generated during the 2020 season and will aim to finish the 2021 F1 season with a better points tally than their previous return. With new ownership, Dorilton Capital, in place, Williams has seen a change in a lot of management roles, notably the appointment of Jost Capito as the CEO and Simon Roberts as the Team Principal. 

This will coincide with the advent of the F1 rule changes.

Roberts on Williams’ approach

Team Principal Simon Roberts has emphasized that the new rule changes are, for the better part, in favor of all teams. He also pointed out the risks that it might cause, as the team would have to ensure the performance of its 2021 car whilst ensuring that preparations for the 2022 car are not delayed.

Roberts said, “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.”

He goes on and talks about their approach to develop the 2022 Williams’ car:-

“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.” 

He further stated that they would 100 percent be well into the development of the 2022 car before August. This would bode well for the constructor that is aiming to rediscover their glory days.

Change in Regulations pushed back

The FIA had planned to introduce major regulation changes for the 2021 Formula 1 season, which would have required teams to go through an overhaul of design and function. The change in regulations was a result of the FIA trying to increase the competition level between the 10 teams by placing all Constructors on an even playing field. 

However, these changes were pushed back to the 2022 season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a meeting to discuss the impact of the pandemic on the sport, the FIA along with the 10 participating teams decided that pushing the technical regulations to 2022 would be beneficial to the teams involved. The Financial Regulations, however, would be implemented as planned in 2021 to improve cost-saving measures.