Completing the pair of launches in Portugal today, Williams showed off their FW31 in an even lower-key ceremony, which just seemed to involve leaving it lying around in the pit lane. The team have opted for a super-dark interim test livery in an effort to disguise all the ugly.
The dark blue livery certainly helped to take the edge off the 2009-spec design, while the most important news about the car is that the team have decided to build their own "flywheel KERS device", as opposed to the "battery system" of the other teams. No idea what that actually means, but it may well be relevant to somebody.
As with the rest of the new breed of cars, the wide, low-slung front wing looks utter turd, as does the narrow, high rear wing. But the rest of the design is actually almost close to pretty, with a clean, anvil-free rear section and a slightly spoon-like nose cone. Bearing in mind that the attractiveness of the car will be boosted further once the lead driver is installed in the car, and Williams may well be onto a winner, looks-wise. Even if it proves to be as quick as an arthritic tortoise.
Speaking after the day's testing, Williams technical bod Sam Michael laid down the team's slightly rubbish aims for the season. "The main thing is continue improving our performance and make sure we are respectable for the budget and efficiency that we have," adding that "Our target is to do the best that we can with the resources that we can and I'm sure that we can hold the team up in a good light." So more 10th places then.
The simple lines of the FW31 will be put through some initial stretching exercises today, when excellently monickered test driver Nico Hulkenburg completes the first test with the new car at the Algarve track.
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