Williams Shows Off The Livery For Their 2023 Car, The FW45

Another day, another Formula 1 car (or at least the livery) is unveiled and this time it's one of the sport's most storied teams looking to regain its fastball: Williams.

It's been a tough few years for Williams, who regressed in 2022 after a P8 finish the season before. Still, there's some buzz around the team. They've got a big new sponsor and an intriguing driver lineup including American Logan Sargeant.

The team showed off its newest challenger which it hopes can bring it back at least into midfield contention, the FW45... well, at least its livery.

The real car will be seen next week during a Shakedown at Silverstone, but at least we get a glance at the livery.

It's an updated version of the one the team used last year. In my opinion, it's simplified a little bit and that did wonders for it. I'm a big fan of the Duracell tie-in on the air intake/roll-hoop. It's clever and looks great.

You'll notice the team has a new sponsor in Gulf Oil. That's significant since the company had previously partnered with McLaren. There had been rumors that the team would use an iconic light blue and orange Gulf livery, but that didn't pan out.

Maybe they'll still do a one-off. Frankly, they'd be crazy not to bust it out at least once this year.

Williams hopes the FW45 will give their drivers — Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon — something to work with this season. (Getty Images)

Williams Teased Some Much Needed Changes For The FW45

While we didn't get to see the real car, the team did confirm that they had “taken the opportunity to heavily evolve the sidepod concept” and reworked the power unit cooling layout. Williams had a few decent showings last season but was at the back of the pack on race day more often than not. They could use some tweaks to make the FW45 a bit more slippery aerodynamically than its predecessor the FW44.

As for the fellas who will be driving it, the team will field a duo consisting of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. While Sargeant is a rookie, the team desperately needed to move on from previous driver Nicholas Latifi. Sargeant had a solid season in F2 and was part of Williams' development program.

As for Albon, he seemed to extract the most he could out of an average-at-best package in 2022. However, he's now going to be the unquestioned team leader, something he hasn't really experienced yet in his F1 career.

I think it's going to take huge gains, and a few duds from teams ahead of the for Williams to rejoin the midfield. I think their ceiling is going to be another P8 in the constructors' standings.

However, after finishing last in 2022, that would still be considered a massive victory.

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