A Season Full of Mistakes
It was a difficult season for Williams, they finished lower in the championship and scored less points last season than they did in 2023. Unfortunately for the team the tone was set early on when Albon destroyed his chassis in Practice 1 in Australia. The team had no spare and were forced to make the decision to take Logan Sargeants chassis and gave it to Albon.
In financial terms, it was a costly season for Williams, all three drivers blighted at some point with some heavy accidents, and some occurred more than once in the same weekend. In the cost cap era and a team with a much smaller budget they cannot afford to keep wasting their budget on car repairs. I don’t know if the car was particularly hard to drive last season, but they could really do with a cleaner 2025.
The Drivers
As for the drivers, we saw Logan Sargeant replaced from the Italian Grand Prix onwards. I think you could say this is fair from Williams, having never beaten his teammate in qualifying and only scoring 1 point, his time was up. He was given a season and a half, which I think is a decent amount of time, given how long the seasons are these days. Formula One is a result driven sport and the step up, sometimes is a step to far for some. I would be surprised if we saw Sargeant in an F1 car ever again.
Franco Colapinto was brought in from the Italian Grand Prix, becoming the first Argentine F1 driver since 2001. Initially he impressed, scoring points in Baku and Austin, however after that he started to struggle. He had a torrid time in Brazil having a heavy crash in qualifying and then the following weekend in Las Vegas he had another heavy crash. He would then retire from the remaining 2 races. For 2025 he is off to Alpine to be their reserve driver for the season, with eyes on a race seat for 2026.
Albon, usually a competent consistent driver had his struggles last season. Maybe his confidence in the car was shaken by that crash in Australia. He did however show glimpses of his normal self with some decent qualifying performances that he couldn’t turn into more points finishes. He remains at the team for 2025 and will have a tougher competitor next to him in the other car so it will be good to see how he handles that additional pressure.
The Team
Since James Vowles took over, Williams have been on a slow trajectory up the grid. There seems to have been a decent amount of stability within the team, and they have, until 2024, improved year on year. The problem Williams have is the midfield is so tightly packed, and the front 4 teams are so reliable, it is hard for them to score regular points and then when they have a bad weekend it can be a double whammy. Look at what happened in Brazil for example, Alpine were in the right place at the right time to get a double podium, that enabled them to leapfrog several teams in the championship, whilst Williams came away with nothing.
For 2025..
Looking forward to this season, Williams should be looking to push themselves back up the grid, they have to good quick drivers now so there is no excuse for only having the one driver scoring the points. The only issue I have with the lineup is I think Sainz always has a mistake in him lurking below the surface. He’s had some hefty crashes in a Ferrari, but these can be more costly to a team like Williams. I do have a feeling that they will have one eye on 2026, but for me they can’t afford to slip down the grid any further this season.
2024 Season Rating 3/10
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