Image courtesy of Williams Racing
Williams shakes down FW44
The Williams FW44 is being shaken down at Silverstone following a 2022 livery launch that does not feature the Ayrton Senna Foundation logo.
Williams unveiled a new livery -- predominantly blue with red touches -- on a show car from studio imagery before the actual car ran for the first time at the home of the British Grand Prix. An electronics issue delayed the start of running but team principal Jost Capito explained the reasoning for not showing the actual FW44 in its launch photos.
https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1493609864962183173
“Because we worked on the livery -- and working on the livery we wanted to have that perfect. That’s why we could only have it on the show car because it took a little while to do,” Capito said. “The race car itself is just getting ready … and we will have some photos from that car. We just wanted to show something proper on the livery.
“(The new car) is all on plan. It should have run a bit earlier but we had an issue on the electronics so that had to be solved … so exactly a one-hour delay.”
Williams has carried Ayrton Senna’s ‘S’ logo on its cars since he was killed in a crash at Imola in 1994, in what was just his third race for the team. However, Capito says it felt like the right time to honor the legendary Brazilian in a different way.
“The decision was we want to move on for the future. We have a new era, we have a new car and we refurbished also our museum, where we have a special area where we celebrate Ayrton. I think we need to look now in the future and not showing the drivers the ’S’ all the time in the car and not reminding them what happened. I think now it’s time for the team to move on and be very honorable to Senna and having a very dedicated space in the museum and honor him there.
“We didn’t have a consultation or talk with the family. But we are working with the foundation and we will increase our efforts with the foundation and then work with it how we can support the Senna foundation more. I think there are more people that will benefit from this and if it can help people, especially through the foundation, I think that’s a very good program; but it still has to be finally defined.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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