Williams says “relatively late” technic🧔al directive changes surrounding the revised aerodynamic regulations played a part in the delays💫 it endured with its 2019 Formula 1 car. 

The British squad was forced to miss the opening two days of pre-season testing in Barcelona after encountering delays with its FW42 car, which dep🐲uty team principal Claire Williams says were partly caused by some late changes to the new aero rules introduced for 2019. 

“There were some technical directives that didn’t come out until rel🐷atively late which doesn’t help,” Williams explained. 

“Particularly a team like ours, when we don’t have the additional budget and therefore resource to th▨row at something if it comes in late. 

“We have a very tight plꦿan, with very stringently controlled budgets to affect that plan and if something is thrown in in the last minute, you then have to find additional resource to either do a U-Turn or do what you have to do to facili🌟tate the change. 

“There were a few incidents like that. You can’t predict that but you should certainly plan for it and build in contingency. It’s so🎀mething we have to take into consideration for the next car build time.”

Williams m💝oved to dismiss a number of theories for the reasons behind its 🐎delays, including rumoured issues with external suppliers and a lack of budget. 

“I think there were many stories around what potentially could have bee🤪n the cause of it,” she ✃said. 

“A co൩uple I read🍸 [said] was that there were issues with external suppliers - that wasn’t the case - or that financially, we were in a difficult position and that had an impact on car build - it didn’t. 

“I think we take for granted sometimes that we’re going to get one car to the test track and two cars to a rac🅘e track but Williams still designs and builds our race cars in house, in their entirety. 

“There are 22,000 parts to our car which we have to design, manufacturer, and assemble, w𒆙hich we have to put through cras𝓡h testing. That’s an enormous job and we didn’t make it for a number of reasons.” 

Williams said an extensive review into the situation remains “a few weeks away” after the team’s attentions were fully focused on recovering lo💫st time in its pre-season testing programme. 

“There hasn’t b🀅een any time,” she added. “There is some work that has been started but it 𒐪will probably take us a few weeks to compile it. 

“And we have to get it ꦏright because if we don’t get the review right, we won’t get next year’s programme right. So we have to take our time and make sure we get it right for next year.”

While Williams did complete some decent mileage in the second week of testing, it does not appear to have made the competitiv💎e strides it would have hoped for as it looks to move back up the pecking order after finishing last in the 2018 constructors’ championship. 

“Clearly w🅺e don’t want to be at the back again but this is a journey, and other teams have done an exceptional job to maybe make greater inroads than maybe we have,” Williams replied when asked about the team’s prospects for the 🧔Australian Grand Prix. 

“But we🍬’ll work hard to make sure we recover from where we were last year to where we may be currently.”