Williams faces an important season in 2025 as it looks to improve from their disappointing finish last year, after dropping two places in the Constructors Championship.
The FW47 broke cover for the first time at Silverstone last week, where Carlos Sainz took to the circuit and completed an installation lap around the shorter International circuit.
The car adorned a camo livery, which Williams used to circumvent the requirement for them to launch their proper 2025 livery at the F1 75 launch event in London.
Williams had used the separate launch day to pull focus on their sponsors, knowing they were about to lose out to the bigger teams in coverage.
While the camo livery made a hard to spot any discernable differences between the FW46 and FW47, F1 technical expert Franco Nugnes noted one big change that will make it easier for Sainz and Alex Albon to drive their cars.
Williams adopts Mercedes rear suspension with FW47
There are a few important rule changes in F1 for 2025, but the cars are set to largely stay the same as they will be evolutions of 2024’s machines.
Williams has a technical partnership with Mercedes which sees them provide the team with engines and gearboxes, and from 2025 this extends to their rear axle assembly according to Nugnes.
“Williams not only has the Mercedes power unit and gearbox, but this year also adopts the Mercedes suspension. The team will go with a carry over version that it has already given to Aston Martin, so there will be three cars with the same rear axle,” said Nugnes.
Adopting this pull-rod rear suspension setup should make their car easier to drive, and allow Sainz and Albon to find a better operating window for the tyres: “One of the great difficulties in F1 last year was finding the right window of operation of the tyres.
“Moving the two axles forward and having more weight overhanging the rear should facilitate more [aerodynamic] load in the rear and theoretically it should be easier in high speed conditions to find an adequate balance.”
Williams unable to show true potential at the end of 2024 due to crashes
Williams showed great potential at the start of the 2024 season when Albon finished in the points at the Monaco and British Grands Prix and had regular Q3 appearances.
Gary Anderson believes Williams struggled to show their true potential after a spate of crashes at the end of the 2024 season, which involved new driver Franco Colapinto.
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Williams incurred a crash damage bill of seven figures last year, notably during the Sao Paulo GP when both drivers crashed in qualifying and Albon was forced to miss the race.
The team will be conscious not to do the same this year, as they look to improve their fortunes ahead of a big regulation change in 2026.
