A New Home For Gulf: Williams Racing Reveals Their 2023 Challenger
via Williams
GROVE, United Kingdom (PSF) — Williams Racing is now the third team to unveil what their challenger for the 2023 Formula 1 season is going to look like on track. The car named the FW45 will look to be the one that resets the trajectory for the historic team that has not won a race since 2012 and has not won a championship since Jacques Villeneuve took home the Drivers’ Championship and aided a Constructors’ Championship winning season in 1997.
The two men tasked with handling the FW45 are Alex Albon, who returns for his second season with Williams after a relatively impressive first season taking the car to three separate points finishes despite the clear lack of pace in the machinery. The Thai-Brit driver will partner rookie driver Logan Sargeant who hails for the United States of America. The Floridian graduates to F1 after a successful 2022 F2 season campaign which saw him capture two wins and four podiums to help Sargeant finish in 4th, giving him the necessary points on his FIA Super License to qualify for a Formula 1 seat.
The 2023 Williams Racing season launch event was hosted by famed F1 journalist Will Buxton and was broadcasted live on their socials. Unlike the Red Bull launch event, Williams showed the new car just a couple minutes after Buxton gave his introduction.
The brand new car features a slightly altered livery from last season’s FW44 that maintain the same gradient blue theme with the hints of red and light blue stripes along the side of the car. A definite change for Williams this year is their all new driver number font that is now bolder and wider than previous years’ fonts. The white number bordered with the Williams red is a nice change that is nice to look at. Another notable change are the wheel covers that have blue arrows lined up in a circle which will look nice at every grand prix, at least when the car is at a standstill. The last noticeable change for this upcoming season is the creative design of painting the engine intake to look like a Duracell battery with the famous bronze and black colors carefully placed. This design, however, is not new to Williams as it was an addition they had made as a one-off for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix last season.
Perhaps the most interesting development from the car launch was the announcement of Gulf International’s partnership with Williams as their title sponsor. Many F1 fans, including myself, expected the livery to incorporate a more Gulf inspired look. Instead, Williams opted to just slap the Gulf logo right on the top of the front wing. Gulf teaming up with Williams comes after McLaren announced that they will not be renewing their deal with Gulf Oil after over 50 years of partnership. As a partner with Williams, Gulf is open to introducing a one-off Gulf inspired livery in the future similarly to their iconic look they brought out with McLaren for the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix.
Unfortunately, the version of the FW45 that was revealed will not be the exact car that will fight for points come Round 1 in Bahrain. Similarly to Haas and Red Bull, what was revealed is simply the livery they will run, and modifications and innovations to the car are still being made.
I was a fan of last year’s slick FW44 livery and the subtle, yet clean changes added to the FW45 doesn’t make me any less of a fan for this year. As an American, I along with other American F1 fans will be taking a long look Logan Sargeant’s number 2 this season. Maybe I’m biased, but I believe that the Williams will be one of the better looking cars this season, looks-wise that is.
