Get the Inside Scoop: Williams’ 2024 Prep Revealed in Team Preview!

Williams may have a long and illustrious history in the sport, but recent years have not always been kind to former world champions. After a torrid time, 2023 showed sparks of a resurgence in form, led by the talented Alex Albon and the experienced hand of James Vowles. But will Williams continue that upward trajectory in 2024?

Drivers by 2024

Alex Albón #23: 2 podiums, 228 points, 81 starts
Sergeant Logan #2: 1 point, 22 starts

Williams has opted to continue Albon's experience alongside Logan Sargeant's youth until 2024, with the American the latest man to confirm his seat for this season. He approaches his second year in Formula 1 knowing the pressure is on to start matching his team-mate in performance, after Albon gave a masterclass on how to maximize every opportunity in 2023.

The Thai driver is a man in demand at the moment, having been excellent on a variety of track layouts and in all conditions last season. It's been impressive to watch the resurgence of his career since he spent a year on the sidelines in 2021, but the big questions remain: Was Red Bull wrong to let him go and are they going to try to get him back?

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Having started his career at Toro Rosso before moving to Red Bull, Albon's current contract with Williams keeps him with the team until the end of 2025. But with a seat at Mercedes up for grabs next year, could Toto Wolff be tempted to close a deal with his close friend Vowles and tempt the Thai man ahead of time?

As for Sargeant, he knows that consistent points and fewer crashes are the order of the day in his second year, while he will be eager to impress as he once again has three opportunities to make a name for himself on home soil.

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Last season

Having finished 2022 last in the constructors' championship and well behind ninth place, 2023 marked an improvement in Williams' form. Albon's consistent scoring took them to seventh overall, ahead of Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri and Haas.

Albon's two seventh-place finishes in Canada and Monza helped enormously, as the Thai driver finished in the points on seven occasions. Sargeant contributed just one point after moving up to tenth place in Austin following the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

The FW45 proved good on a lap and maintained the characteristics of being slippery in a straight line and therefore difficult to overtake, with Monza being the usual highlight for the team. But they proved they were no one-trick ponies, also earning points on some less high-speed dominated tracks.

With James Vowles bringing all of his Mercedes experience to the team principal role, Williams looked like an established unit in 2023, and will look to build on that stable foundation in 2024.

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History

Where to start with one of the oldest and proudest teams in F1? Williams was created by the late great Sir Frank Williams and has been competing in the sport since 1978. There has been many successes along the way, with nine world championship titles to date, the last of them won in 1997.

Add to that seven drivers' titles for drivers such as Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in the 1990s, with previous championships for Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet and Alan Jones, and Williams has amassed more titles in the sport than no one except Ferrari and McLaren.

But things haven't been going so well lately, with a steady decline from 2016 onwards, with no wins since Pastor Maldonado's famous and unexpected victory in Spain in 2012. Things only got worse throughout 2018 and 2019, with the Williams . The family eventually retired in mid-2020 and sold the team to Dorilton Capital.

But helped by strong pushes from George Russell before leaving for Mercedes, and now from Albon, Williams has turned his fortunes around to be firmly in the midfield conversation heading into 2024.

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Greatest achievement

For a team with such an illustrious history, it's hard to pick just one. But perhaps in F1's yearbooks of heartbreaks and fairy tales, the way Williams recovered from the utter devastation of losing its new talisman Ayrton Senna in 1994 to claim the world drivers' title in 1996 deserves a mention.

With Senna replacing Prost in 1994, and having won both titles the previous year, Williams was the dominant force in F1 and was sweeping everything before it. But then came complete tragedy at Imola: the Brazilian great died while leading just his third race for the team, and although Williams retained the constructors' title that year, the drivers' title went to Michael Schumacher.

Forced to rebuild under the saddest of circumstances, the team put its faith in Damon Hill, and although no one could ever take Senna's place, Hill put in an excellent performance in 1995 only to controversially miss out on glory by just one point.

But he and the team ended two difficult seasons with a championship-winning campaign in 1996, the Briton's only world title. Williams won again the following year with Jacques Villeneuve, their most recent drivers' title to date.

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A key objective for 2024

While Williams was very good at taking advantage of its opportunities in 2023, one thing they do need if they want to move up the order is for both cars to put up consistent scores.

Therefore, your goal this year has to be to get Sargeant up to top speed and more consistently match Albon in performance both on a lap and across race days. The American rookie struggled for long periods last season, admitting that he tried too hard and at times overexerted himself.

Towards the end of the year, he seemed to have found a better balance on how to extract pace without too much risk, with the big crashes that marred many of his race weekends seemingly forgotten. His classification also improved significantly, highlighting seventh place on the Las Vegas grid.

In an era of cost caps, replacing parts and rebuilding cars can cost a team time and money that must be reallocated from developing next year's car, so Sargeant keeping his weekends more organized will help Williams no end.

And if he can start scoring more points, that will help the team in what is expected to be a very close constructors' fight in midfield.

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