The major step that has the best of Mercedes and Ferrari

Formula 1 has got itself to the point where it's no longer about the 'hero' driver, it's about how much money you have to develop the chassis and power unit. It's a sad state of affairs, but that's the way it is.

The competition between two team-mates will always exist and, yes, one driver will normally stand out against the other. In reality, that is the only measure of their individual talent but when the car is not up to it, neither will be able to find that bit extra.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull showed in in 2017 that when the car was good, both drivers were in competition. But more importantly, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen showed they had that bit extra against their team-mates.

Williams has effectively taken the highest possible paying drivers, which is not to say that they are bad drivers. When you consider that to find a tenth of a second could easily cost in excess of £1million, if Williams can come up with the ideas and produce the developments with the extra budget to move the car forward then it is down to the two drivers to show who has the highest level of talent.

And Williams has taken a very aggressive approach towards its car, which has a very different aerodynamic philosophy. With Paddy Lowe joining from Mercedes and Dirk de Beer from Ferrari early last year, it's easy to see an influence from the approach that Ferrari took in 2017. But the car also incorporates some ideas from Mercedes.

I would classify the philosophy change as one of 'downforce solves all problems'. That includes getting the tyres to work and getting them to last longer, so it's time to forget the very aerodynamically efficient Williams cars we have seen over the last few seasons and concentrate on downforce.

Starting with the front wing, it is the normal multi-element package with a very short cord leading main plane. All of this is to control the front wing airflow separation problems when the wing gets close to the ground and at high speed.

Under the nose, Williams has incorporated the Mercedes snow plough, or duck bill, or cape - call it what you will - that tidies up the airflow as it comes around the sides of the nose to help the bargeboards. By the look of the exit duct on the top of the nose, Williams has also incorporated an 'S' duct with its inlet on the underside of the nose. This helps to pull greater mass airflow through the centre section of the nose and wing mounting pillar area. Again, this feeds more mass flow to the bargeboards.

The front suspension is reasonably conventional, with a top and bottom wishbone and inboard suspension units operated by pushrods. My only criticism would be that, in the interests of aerodynamics, the suspension geometry has been compromised by having the inboard wishbone pick-ups mounted very high on the chassis. This may lead to a compromised tyre contact patch under braking and at low speed.

The sidepod undercut and raised inlet area are very aggressive. This allows more airflow through to diffuser's upper surface and the lower surface of the rear wing, which reduces overall drag

Behind the front wheels is where it gets a bit more interesting, with the Ferrari style short sidepods allowing much more space for the bargeboard package. Achieving this requires a very different approach to the side impact structures, so structurally the chassis will be fairly different.

The actual bargeboard package appears to be a combination of what Ferrari and Mercedes ran last year. The lower parts are more Mercedes and the upper and outer components are more Ferrari.

The delta fin coming from the chassis to the upper part of the outer bargeboard will be there to control the wake coming off the trailing edge of the front wing. Again, all these components are there to pull as much mass airflow through under the front of the raised chassis, improving the performance of the front wing and the underfloor.

The sidepods themselves are very curvaceous and look like they wrap all the internal components very tightly. I would imagine that extra cooling exits might appear when we get to circuits where temperatures are an issue. It's very easy to compromise the cooling package, especially when pre-season testing will be carried out at a fairly cool Barcelona.

The sidepod undercut and raised inlet area again are very aggressive. This allows more airflow through to the upper surface of the diffuser and the lower surface of the rear wing and reduces the car's overall cross section, which in turn reduces the overall drag.

The halo integrates fairly well but on a modern day F1 car, it looks a bit retro. It looks like it should have been around when F1 cars were using spaceframe chassis! But if it saves a life it will have done its job.

The engine cover fin is reduced in area, as per the regulations, but I think we all knew it wouldn't take long before a T-wing of some sort made an appearance and here it is. It's smaller, lower and not so ugly as last year's example so we should be thankful.

As you can imagine, with the airflow coming around the engine cover and over the tops of the sidepods the flow is not very uniform and this T-wing is there to optimise the direction of the that airflow to the undersurface of the rear wing.

The diffuser is the maximum height and width allowed in the regulations, with a Gurney flap trip along the upper trailing edge. The outer vertical double turning vanes are there to turn the airflow as much as possible to connect it to the low pressure area behind the rear tyres. If you can get the rear of the car all working as one then the increase in underfloor downforce is significant.

The multitude of turning vanes in the diffuser are there to help turn that airflow outward, but also to control the areas of diffuser stall when the car gets near the ground. Managing this inevitable aerodynamic stall and making sure the airflow reattaches immediately as the rear ride increases is critical, otherwise the driver will lack confidence when they hit the brake pedal.

All in all, it looks a major step forward from last year's Williams. When you put together a package of ideas from other cars it's always difficult to get the best from them, so Williams will need to hope that its two relatively inexperienced drivers will keep their cool during testing.

After all, mileage for them and for the team will be vitally important so any mistakes that lead to down-time will hurt the testing programme. It's an important year for Williams, and it's going to be important that the drivers do their bit for the team.