F1 News: Williams finally gets third chassis, updates in Miami

(GMM) Williams may finally be getting its 2024 season back on track.

The once-great team, having slipped to the back of the grid in recent years, had high hopes for the new season as James Vowles oversaw the transition to a much more complex car and internal processes.

Vowles, the team boss who had moved from Mercedes, admits it was a risk.

“I told the team to have faith,” he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport in Miami. “If we fail, I’ll take it on myself.

“Because if we hadn’t taken a new path, we would have just stayed where this team has been for the last ten years.”

True to Vowles’ fears, the Mercedes-powered 2024 single-seater was badly delayed, the team fell behind in the production of spare parts – and then the drivers began crashing and damaging the only two monocoques that had been produced.

Finally in Miami, a third Williams chassis is ready.

“It’s not here yet,” Alex Albon said on Thursday, “but it’s about to arrive. It will be nice to know that there’s some kind of safety net.”

However, the car still lacks pace.

“Our car wasn’t fast enough in China. That was obvious,” said Vowles.

In some good news for Williams, however, the first real upgrades are now being added to the FW46, which like rivals Alpine and Sauber is yet to score a single point so far in 2024.

“We’ve managed to put a few new parts on the car,” Vowles said, “and we have a bigger upgrade planned for Imola.”

Albon continued: “Everything is getting better with spare parts, and things are getting better on the chassis side. Hopefully we can now focus more on the updates and the overall development of the car.”