Williams have brought up the rear of the F1 grid for the past three seasons. They have earned a combined eight points across the three campaigns which has seen them finish dead-last each time. The team has decided to switch up their mojo by opting for a rather “different” livery for the 2021 car, the FW43B and maintained a lot of secrecy in the lead-up to the reveal of the car.

Williams team principal Simon Roberts explains why the team wanted to sport a camo livery to hide the radical new livery.

Williams’ fall from grace has been very widely documented and could be put down to the old-fashioned way the team has been run in modern-day F1. This has led to the British team being sold by the Williams family to US investment company Dorilton Capital in 2020.

The 2021 season will be the first F1 season in which the Williams team will not have a member of the Williams family in its paddock.

Williams wanted to hide their radically different livery before the launch, according to team principal

On the podcast, The Silverstone Podcast, Williams team principal Simon Roberts explained the lengths of secrecy to which an F1 team conducts its shakedown. He said, “There is a huge amount of secrecy, and you know teams go to different lengths as you probably know. We ran without any paint at all on our car. So that was interesting.”

Roberts explained why Williams opted not to put any paint on their car while conducting their shakedown.

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“It’s a big livery change for us. The car itself is pretty much carryover. So, someone could have been there with the long lens, they wouldn’t have seen much really. But, they would have seen the livery we got because that’s very different.

“So, we decided early on that we had enough time between shakedown and filming and going to the test to paint everything. So, that became part of our media story.”

The Brit also explained how the team used the media narrative to their advantage for filming day.

“The filming we did do, the team here have used and we kinda used that to tell this story that we’re doing something different. Our partners got coverage of that. There were a few things that went out on the internet as teasers, just showing that we’ve got a car but, it’s not got any paint on it and that kinda is just being cool.

“The car looked super cool in pure carbon on the track. Sure on a photograph or on TV, it looks rubbish but standing in the pitlane with a stealthy carbon Williams FW43B coming at you is really, really cool.”

Can the iconic team finish higher than last in 2021?

Williams endured difficult three-day testing in Bahrain, which saw them massively struggle with the weather conditions. The FW43B struggled with the swirling winds which blew around the Bahraini circuit. The team is confident that their 2021 car will do extremely well at certain tracks while struggling at others.

Williams will fancy their chances of finishing higher than dead-last for the 2021 season. Their rival for ninth place in the standings would be Haas.

If Williams are unable to beat the American team, they could be confined to the bottom for a long time. But if they fulfill this basic objective, it could be a small step towards eventual recovery to the top.