F1 End of Year Team Ranking – #9: Williams Racing

F1 End of Year Team Ranking – #9: Williams Racing

31st December 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

Williams Racing could not build on their impressive performances from last season and many crashes throughout the season brought the team’s campaign to a halt.

Feature image credit: Williams Racing

Whilst the team looked to build upon their successes of 2023, the Wantage-based squad were not able to capitalise on their improved form of late as the weight of crashes came to bear down on them. The start and end of the season became a simple fight for survival to compete. 

In the opening stages of the championship, concerns were highlighted about the team’s ability to bring parts for the start of the season. This was seemingly overshadowed by the drama occurring at the other end of the pit lane, in Red Bull’s camp, over allegations of inappropriate behaviour. 

The team’s problem with bringing spare chassis hindered the team in the opening chapters of the 2024 season especially when crashes forced them to send the damaged part back to the United Kingdom for repairs for the next race. 

The more noticeable moment for this was the Australian Grand Prix when the team were forced to drop Logan Sargeant – foreshadowing? – for Alexander Albon to race in the remaining car following the latter’s heavy crash in Free Practice. It was a smart decision from the team as Albon was the more reliable point-scorer after Sargeant scored his only point in F1 in the 2023 United States Grand Prix thanks to disqualifications. 

Sargeant was not in the clear from crashing the car either with his moments during the season – plus the lack of performance – which ultimately led to his early exit from the team after the Dutch Grand Prix. This led the team to bring Formula 2 racer Franco Colapinto into the paddock to replace the American driver. 

The Argentine showed promise early on in his nine-race stint and became a strong driver for the team scoring points on the second time of asking at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix (four points). He followed this up with his second and final point at the US Grand Prix. 

Whilst Colapinto has not kept it out of the wall, it’s a shame he has not secured a full-time seat for the 2025 season but, hopefully, Colapinto will get a second opportunity soon. 

Whilst the crashes early on in the season brought Williams into the spotlight for the wrong reasons, the team went full circle with the season-ending in the same way: fighting for survival to attend and race. 

A double crash in Brazil gave the team concerns in a wet qualifying session before Colapinto repeated this with a heavy hit in the race in soaking conditions. The Argentine later went on to crash heavily in qualifying at the Las Vegas GP before colliding with Alpine’s (now-Haas driver) Esteban Ocon on the opening lap of the Qatar GP.

Crashes were a season-defining feature of the team’s season, one of which Williams will hope to avoid in 2025 with two strong pilots in their midst: Albon and Carlos Sainz. However, concerns would be looking at their financial budget for this season, worrying if the consistent crashes result in them breaching the cost-cap regulations next September. 

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Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryFormula 1 Formula Series News Opinion

About the author

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

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