Williams is set to run its 2022 Formula 1 car this afternoon at Silverstone, having initially launched its new livery on a show car.
The team’s ‘season launch event’ took place with a physical 2022 F1 car but that was a show model rather than the real FW44.
As the FW44 was not even shown in the form of digital renders, it suggested the real thing was not ready to be revealed to the public, especially as during the off-season sources had indicated Williams had fallen behind schedule.
However, the car is set to complete a shakedown this afternoon and Williams will reveal images from it later on Tuesday as well.
CEO and team principal Jost Capito said Williams wanted to show the new livery off “perfect” and could only do that on the show car because “that took a while to do” and “we just wanted to show something proper on the livery”.
But the new car is in fact ready, and Capito was scheduled to break off sharply from his media session following the team’s launch at 1.55pm local time so that he could see the FW44 run for the first time.
Capito also revealed it was meant to run on-track sooner but got delayed by an electrical issue.
“No, it’s all on plan,” he said when asked by The Race to clarify the car is running today and the build finished without delays.
“It should have run a bit earlier today but we had an issue with the electronics that had to be solved.
“I will take it that we start at 2pm instead of 1pm. I accept this one-hour delay!”
Of the 2022 crop of cars, the Aston Martin and the Alfa Romeo have already taken to the track, at Silverstone and Fiorano respectively, while the AlphaTauri is also scheduled to run on Tuesday at Misano.
