The evidence that shows Williams' F1 recovery is real

Formula 1 fans will be very familiar with Williams's plight. Once the championship's powerhouse squad, it faded from the front a few years into the new millennium, its early turbo-hybrid-era revival stalled, and then it crashed to the ignominy of the back of the pack.

The tale of the descent rings loudly to F1 observers because it has only just finished. In 2020, the team repeated its last-place finish in the constructors' championship of 2019. And for the first time in the squad's history running its own cars (from 1978, a year after its first F1 outings with a March chassis), it scored no points - down from the one it had picked up, by luck, at the 2019 German Grand Prix.

We've been here before with Williams. The team has been targeting a recovery ever since it went into constructors' championship freefall, and has remained eager to create memories more akin to those it managed in the 1990s, the decade when it won more teams' titles than any other squad. But, however bad the stats look from 2020, it was something of a Williams resurgence.

For starters, there were George Russell's nine Q2 appearances. His first, at the Styrian Grand Prix, was the first time a Williams had progressed from Q1 since the 2018 Brazilian GP. There was Russell's loss of two likely points finishes at the Tuscan and Emilia Romagna GPs, a poor third start and that safety car crash respectively to blame, plus Nicholas Latifi's three 11th-place results (and one for Russell).

But it was the FW43's pace that really demonstrated the first shoots of recovery. Autosport's supertimes calculations show that Williams closed the gap to the front last year, going from 104.301% of the ultimate pace in 2019 to 102.831%, and finishing ahead of Haas in the 2020 team averages.

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So, Williams finally seems to be on the up, but the second big difference in its quest to get back towards the front of the grid comes from the top of the team itself. For the first time in 44 seasons, the squad heads into a new F1 campaign without the Williams family in charge. Dorilton Capital took ownership late last August, with Frank and Claire Williams exiting their roles as team principal and deputy at last year's Italian GP, where they received an emotional, heartfelt farewell.

In the five months since it took over ownership, Dorilton has been understanding what it bought, and establishing where it plans to take it and how to get there. But it has all been done quietly, without the fanfare of bold declarations designed to grab media attention. An internal review has been completed, with the team then trying to get short-term plans in place for work to be completed before the new F1 budget-cap rules came in on 1 January.

Just before Christmas, its new senior management structure was announced, with former McLaren operations boss Simon Roberts, installed as acting team principal since Monza last September, getting the job on a permanent basis and reporting to team CEO Jost Capito - the former VW motorsport chief and briefly team CEO at McLaren. Capito in turn reports to Dorilton - and now Williams - chairman Matthew Savage. Williams has also hired 2009 world champion Jenson Button as a special advisor to the team where he made his F1 debut in 2000.

"We'll be investing in some of the facilities in the factory. Just simple stuff, but stuff that makes it better for people to work there" Simon Roberts

"We've kind of taken it one step at a time," says Roberts, speaking to Autosport just before the end of the 2020 season, of the transition period that followed Dorilton's initial takeover. "We put together an investment plan with them, right from the very start. And that was focused at 'what do we need to do, what can we do and what should we do to add performance to the team?' It's 100% focused on adding performance. But that does include making sure it's a great place to work."

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One of Williams's famous attributes throughout its F1 history was its family set-up, a 'garagista', old-school squad that morphed into one of the championship's superteams, and also active in wider motorsport. It clung fiercely to its 'privateer' status, eager to remain 'independent' in the strictest senses of producing grand prix machinery, even as the F1 world around it changed.

Dorilton, Roberts insists, does not want to lose the historic spirit and heritage that Williams can proudly boast. But the new owner is making changes. Some are small - factory upgrades and improvements squeaked in, sensibly and legally, before the cost-cap rules came into effect. And some are large, including the big news that, as of 2022, Williams will move to "expanding its technical collaboration", according to a team statement, with engine supplier Mercedes. This includes "the supply of certain transferable components", and Williams will run the same gearboxes and necessary hydraulic parts as the works squad.

"Dorilton don't want to shift that lovely feel that exists within Williams, that kind of family spirit and friendliness," says Roberts. "We are investing. We'll be investing in some of the facilities in the factory. Just simple stuff, but stuff that makes it better for people to work there. And with investment behind us, luckily, we're in a position to be able to do that. I don't want to go into the specifics, but it's just all the right things you'd expect an F1 team to be doing."

The move to use Mercedes gearboxes in particular is a major change in the team's technical process, as it had always been determined to build its own. While it will continue to design and build the rest of its cars in-house, Williams is making a bid to improve efficiency in its design and production process. In turn, it hopes to redistribute resources to try to boost performance levels elsewhere.

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But this development is really significant because it binds the team closer to one of F1's 'Class A' squads, more along the lines of what Haas has done with Ferrari since entering the championship in 2016, and the relationship Aston Martin has long had with Mercedes.

To be clear, what Williams has decided to do for the start of next season does not go to the same extent as Haas's use of Ferrari's listed parts, and neither does it mean it will be running a 'white Mercedes' come 2022 - a la the pink version of Aston's previous guise. But the success these squads have had with the current trend of binding close to a works operation has clearly paid off.

As Racing Point last year, Aston had the third fastest car over the course of the season, and the team won a race for the first time since the 2003 Brazilian GP as Jordan (although of course it was largely reaping the rewards of its choice to base its 2020 car's aerodynamics on the previous season's Mercedes).

The expanded technical arrangement between Williams and Mercedes is simply the start of the new way of working for one of F1's most storied squads.

"Aspirationally, this is a five-to-10-year plan with Dorilton," says Roberts. "And that really helps us when we're making these investments. We're not in that horrible position where we're trying to make investments that pay back in one, two or three years. Obviously, we want to do that. But they're happy for us to invest in things that will make a difference over the five-to-10-year period.

"So that's quite refreshing. It gives us real strength and depth in the stuff we're putting in place. So, because of that, you can't just invent all that in three months [after Dorilton took over Williams up to the end of 2020]. But that's part of what we're doing now. We'll start putting the plans for investment in place and over the next four years under the cost cap."

F1's new financial rules are intended to help level the playing field. This has been boosted somewhat by the decision to push the championship's rules reset back a year to lessen the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because, while spending was unrestricted in 2020, the teams did take a financial hit across the year as the pandemic bit, and now have to complete the designs of their 2022 challengers within the $145million cost cap for the current year.

An additional change to F1's rules from the start of this year means that windtunnel testing has a handicap system across the grid, which means the more successful teams are permitted less time using this tool.

"We will slowly creep up towards [the cap] and hopefully meet in a happy place, where we've added real performance and real value, and other teams have been pulled down to where we are" Simon Roberts

Roberts suspects Dorilton "would've probably not invested had that [the cost cap, agreed last May] not been in place, because otherwise you're asking people to sign a blank cheque. So at least they have certainty under the regulations that there is a finite limit on what they could be asked to support. Obviously, we're also looking to do more with sponsorship and other ways of bringing value into the team. All doors are open. But yes, [the cost cap is] important.

"Our view is that we're not rushing to smack our heads into the cost cap, that new ceiling. We're under it [already, in 2020], we're happy where we are. And we're looking to invest and strengthen the team where it really makes a difference. I think what will happen over time, our anticipation is obviously the cost cap is going to continue to fall over the next few years [it will already reduce to $140m in 2022 and $135m in 2023]. And we will slowly creep up towards it and hopefully meet in a happy place, where we've added real performance and real value, and other teams have been pulled down to where we are.

"The great news there is we're not expecting any stress or aggravation of having to reduce costs to achieve the cost cap. And I don't wish that on anybody. I've been in big teams; I've been in companies where I've had to make people redundant - it's super-horrible. I don't envy the rich teams that are going to have to do that, because it's people and their livelihoods. And I don't take that for granted. But it's part of the changing sport."

F1 is going to change substantially in 2022, as the new cars finally hit the track. But first it must get through another season that looks set to be heavily impacted by the pandemic.

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Completing the 23-race calendar is far from certain given the fluidity of the coronavirus surges around the world. Although new F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said recently that the championship has adopted a "flexible approach" to the coming campaign, which could yet be shorter and even more condensed than currently planned, it's not hard to imagine the season being similar to 2020.

A reduced calendar would impact the finances of all stakeholders once again. But the year's sporting action will really be a continuation of the campaign just gone, with the 2020 cars in essence carried over to save costs. The mandated changes to floor design will cut downforce levels by 10%, and only certain parts of the cars can be developed under a new token system.

For Williams, this is both positive and negative. It can continue with the base design FW43 that took it back towards F1's midfield, and so close to the points last year, while it also misses a chance to make further gains with a whole new car. Plus, 2020 'Class C' rivals Alfa Romeo and Haas stand to get the same benefit from Ferrari's new engine, should it prove to be successful.

Williams plans to continue to develop the FW43 at the start of 2021, in line with the token restrictions, and there are still plenty of aerodynamic parts that can be freely updated (the chassis and suspension members are included in the token system). There are also new tyre compounds to understand for 2021 - always crucial to F1 car performance, especially in the Pirelli era - and making sure the floor changes are navigated in a way that adheres to the rules while clawing back some downforce.

"It's just ratcheting things up slowly," says Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson. "Evolving everything that we can - 'a bit here and a bit there'. I don't think there are any silver bullets, unfortunately."

But the team is at least starting with the knowledge that it can make a difference to its place in the performance stakes, building on the "big step" Roberts highlights in Williams's competitiveness from 2019 to 2020. The challenge now is to continue that improvement within the restrictions of 2021's stopgap season, while building towards the reset now back on the horizon.

Before the end of 2020, Williams was yet to finalise its dual car development programme, but it is expected by now to have its initial 2022 designs in its windtunnel. In a year's time, Williams does not want a repeat of its 2019 testing fiasco, where it missed the first two days of the opening test after the FW42 build schedule fell behind.

It therefore intends to work back from the expected first race and test dates in 2022 and find the crossover sweet spot to ensure it will not miss out on critical tests at the start of the new era, while also completing maximum development work under the 2021 cost cap.

"It's a great opportunity for all the teams, it's a great risk as well," says Roberts. "But the thing we're focused on is, there's zero carryover from 2021 to 2022. You can't be late with anything. So we're being more cautious than normal with our programme. Basically, we're figuring out how much space and capacity we have across the whole organisation.

"We've taken a really balanced, holistic view across the whole company. And the team have done a great job with that - I'm really pleased and proud of them. And then that will basically carve out for us how much time and effort we have, in total, to develop the 2021 car [alongside the all-new design]."

"I really believe as a race team, we're operating up there with the likes of McLaren and Renault, and I think we are a step ahead of some of our nearest competitors" George Russell

Williams is, of course, far from alone in hoping the 2022 rule changes dramatically alter F1's competitive order. But the team itself believes that, if it can make a significant step up the grid, then the experience of recovering from its previous woes - it suddenly plunged after finishing third in the constructors' championship in 2014 and 2015 - will provide benefits that other teams may not have.

As a Mercedes junior, who could well be on his way to the works operation for the start of the 2022 season, Russell has done his F1 learning in the spotlight, even if it's been a dimmed one at the back of the pack. But, from what he has seen in the past two years, he is certain that Williams can secure F1 success if it can nail the rules reset.

"There's no doubt the team are mentally stronger," Russell explains. "And I think as an operation, we are improved. When you have a season as we did in 2019, and even [in 2020] to a certain extent, it forces you to go over every single little detail to make sure they're on top of things.

"You know, arguably back in 2014, as a race team, it wasn't anywhere near the standard that the guys are operating at today, purely because the car was so good. You almost become complacent, that 'we must be doing a good job because we're fast'. And equally 2019 and 2020, you feel like 'we must be doing a bad job because we're slow'.

"It forces us to look at absolutely everything. I really believe as a race team, we're operating up there with the likes of McLaren and Renault, and I think we are a step ahead of some of our nearest competitors."

While the asset that Russell undoubtedly is to Williams may not be around once his three-year deal expires at the end of this season, he would be leaving a team on the up and determined to finally pull itself from its current depths, even if it were to repeat its 2020 results.

Williams is evolving under its new owner and it will inevitably take time to see the full impact of this change. But it is determined not to lose the soul that made it so successful and so special in F1 history, which is what makes its story so captivating in its latest charge.

"The team are really up for it," Roberts concludes. "Everyone, despite the fact we're currently 10th in the championship. There's a real fighting spirit here."