Robson Details Strategy Behind F1 Car Weight Choices

Williams F1’s tactical retreat promises future strides, says Robson, shedding light on key weight decisions.

Williams F1 Could Have Accelerated Development on Current Car by Foregoing Other Work Streams, But at the Cost of Team Development. Under the guidance of Director James Vowles, the team has consciously chosen to accept setbacks in specific areas, such as the weight of the car, to lay foundational work that will benefit future progress.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that we’ve taken a step back to ultimately make several steps forward, and we’ll see what happens,” explains Performance Director Dave Robson.

“Similarly, especially at the start of the year, every time qualifying ended, we would look at each other and say ‘if only the car had been at the weight limit.’ Then we start to realize that we could have been much further along.”

“James has rightly said that we shouldn’t think like that, but in the moment, it’s obviously frustrating. And perhaps with perfect hindsight, we wouldn’t have changed what we did or what we had planned to do—maybe we would have altered our approach slightly and maybe started the whole process earlier.”

“There is, therefore, a certain frustration and some regret in the moment, but I think we can all see the bigger picture and what James is trying to lead us towards. So, it’s a small pain in the short term, but I think we can all see where this is heading.”

“Repercussions” on Overall Development

Robson explains that Williams has made advances in its chassis design, which is inherently light, but this has impacted the work carried out on other components: “I think we can look back and say that we were quite ambitious with what we undertook over the winter.”

“We completely changed the way we manufacture the chassis, which allowed us to reduce the chassis weight and carry out very beneficial research and development that will have repercussions in the years to come.”

“This is therefore one of those significant cases where we tackled a major technical challenge, and although it was not exactly as planned when we embarked on this path, obviously, the decision was made quite early, but the outcome was a bit more complicated than anticipated.”

“This has had ramifications for other parts where we had to rush the design. The net result is that, although the chassis represented a good step forward, the car ended up being heavier than it should have been.”