Formula 1’s new nose regulations gave Williams a ‘headache’ according to chief technical officer Pat Symonds.
The FIA has tightened the rules around the nose section in an attempt to rid cars of the ugly ‘finger’ extensions. However with Williams showing of their 2015 car, the FW37, it became apparent that the rules hadn’t achieved what they set out.
Speaking about the new car, Symonds explained the process behind the design and continuing on from the succes of the FW36.
“The notion for the FW37 was to look closely at the FW36 and its performances,” he said. “We then went about recognising what had worked well and identifying and resolving the areas that we felt needed to be improved. Although the aerodynamics of the car were impressive there is always room for improvement particularly as we handle the new 2015 nose regulations.
“The first conceptual stage of the FW37 came before the FW36 had turned a wheel. The main element to this is understanding the rule changes and how they will affect the design of the car, from here we can start see if our ideas will fit within the regulations.”
Symonds explained that the new nose regulations had an affect on the overall performance of the car and therefore changes had to be made front to back.
“The change in regulations offered us a slight headache. The new front bulkhead and nose geometry had much more of an impact than we had initially anticipated and the effect on the aero was profound. The team have worked hard on pulling back the deficit these regulations have made for us.
“We felt we came up against design barriers in the FW36 and so took the opportunity to remove those barriers for the benefit of the performance. The FW36 carried a reasonable amount of ballast, so we were able to make alterations to the design for added performance without the fear of adding excessive mass.”
Meanwhile, he also insisted that their late charge to beat Ferrari to third hasn’t hampered their development efforts for this season.
“The desire to beat Ferrari to third place in the Constructors’ in 2014 meant we pushed our development through to late autumn, but the size of the team is now at a point where it was able to sustain this development whilst still working on the FW37.
“The more rule stability there is, the closer the field gets. I hope as a team we are more capable of maintaining the forward momentum to catch Mercedes, than the teams behind us are of catching us. It’s not just about stable regulations but also about the team and every individual that works here moving forward and improving.”
Discussion about this post