With the 2022 Formula One season well underway a lot of discussion amongst Williams fans was when the team would introduce upgrades for their so far less than competitive FW44. Well in the lead up to the British Grand Prix the Williams Racing Team Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson would make it clear that the British event would see the team push ahead with these much awaited upgrades.

Robson said: "We have an updated aero package for this weekend, which we'll run on Alex’s car only as we look to check its behaviour and confirm that it is working as intended. The bodywork and floor form the basis of the upgrade and are intended to efficiently increase the downforce of the car."

Now the first images have seen of the upgrades that the team has brought. The most obvious changes involve the changes to the bodywork in particular the sidepods aiming to improve the external airflow over the car and in turn produce more downforce. The design appears to be influenced by other designs that have been adopted by teams such as Ferrari and Red Bull.

The new Williams design has taken elements from other designs such as the overall ramp solution coming from Red Bull but the shallow inlet design used to feed air to the radiators coming from the Ferrari. But to achieve this there has also been considerable change in regard to the systems underneath the bodywork. The radiators and other systems that had been mounted high up requiring a wide engine cover have all been repositioned or even redesigned.

From the images underneath the engine cover previously there were a a pair of coolers mounted over the top of the power unit, now there is just one. With the changes the engine cover is now much slimmer as the required space of the components in the old design is no longer required.

The next most notable change that has occurred with the upgrade has to be the floor with the new floor having a very different leading edge compared to the older one.

The upgrades will only be seen on one car at the British event that of Albon's. There are several possible reasons why this is the case. Certainly a limitation on the teams ability to produce the parts as well as having sufficient spares for both cars is one aspect but there is also the team looking to use this event to conduct back-to-back tests with both the new and the old designs.

Latifi was questioned at the British event and he spoke of his hope that their will be a significant performance difference even if it does mean he is left well behind Alex over the weekend.

Nicholas said: “I guess time will tell – we’ll find out more on Saturday and Sunday, to be hones.”

“It’s probably a bit early to really put a proper number to it.

“We’ve been given a very broad range and potential time so we just really have to see what it’s going to bring. I mean, it is a sizable difference. Visually, the two cars will look different.

“Even though it’s not on my car, I’m hopeful that it’s going to be quite a big difference. I think, in a few races, I’m supposed to get it.

“It won’t be the next race either, which is obviously a little bit frustrating from a driving side of things, but I’m going to be watching with a keen eye to see what it brings to the other car and hopefully, there’s a relative closure performance to the next gap of cars because I know there are a few other cars here as well bringing some upgrades so we’ll have to wait and see.”

As for why Alex was being given the updates Nicholas explained by saying: “Championship position.”

“[It’s] a fairly standard thing when the upgrade is available only for one car so I’m not surprised that the upgrades are on his car.

“From my side, I would have liked there to be two sets of upgrades especially as it’s obviously the car’s first upgrade of the season.

“From where we started, it’s obviously quite a long time because it was clear we were not where we wanted to be performance-wise. So we were just patiently waiting. It would have been nice to have two sets, but yeah, just got to be a bit more patient on my side.”

In regard to the upgrades Alex commented to the media by saying: "Well, the upgrade itself is exciting.”

“Obviously, we have quite a visibly different update that we have this weekend coming. It will actually be hard for us to truly understand that if it’s raining because we won’t really be able to have a true back-to-back.

“I think the reason why we have one car is partly down to getting it here on time. I think it was pretty last minute, and the guys did an amazing job to get it ready.

“But it also offers a good comparison between the two cars. We are generally interested, as it is so different – the philosophy itself is different. We do need to see where it comes out. On simulation tools, everything is better but by how much and in what ways we don’t really know, so let’s wait and see.”

As fr the fact that the upgrades for the FW44 were very similar to that of other cars Alex said: “That’s normal!”

“All the teams copy the best teams, but we have our own one!”