Williams in prime position to improve, but can they maximise on the advantage?

The Williams Formula 1 team launches its 2023 challenger on Monday. Following a tough 2022, the team looks forward to a better showing this year, with the budget cap and more time in the wind tunnel sure to boost its chances - on paper, at least.

Williams has been on a downward spiral these last few years, but in the past few months things have been steadily improving. However, the upward trend is happening at a different pace than fans and investors would have hoped, with team boss Jos Capito deserting his post at the end of 2022.

In his place, Williams appointed James Vowles, who, up until his appointment, was the Strategy Director at the mighty Mercedes-AMG team.

More, the ever-underperforming Nicholas Latifi has also been released from his duties, with American Logan Sargeant getting the nod for the seat alongside Alex Albon in 2023.

Can Williams up its game?

With the budget cap in effect since 2021, the amount teams can spend on in-season development has decreased on a sliding scale. Starting at $145 million, the budget dropped to $140m last year, with 2023 and onwards settling on $135m.

This is aimed at levelling the playing field and allowing smaller teams with limited budgets to challenge for wins and, hopefully, championships.

In addition, the higher a team finishes in a season's standings, the less time it will have in the wind tunnel. In other words, teams are allowed 400 hours of wind tunnel time of 320 runs, limited to two runs per day, for the 2023 season. But the allocated time can either be less or more, depending on where a team finished.

Red Bull, for instance, may only spend 73% of the allowed time in the wind tunnel, but a 10% wind tunnel penalty for breaking the 2021 budget cap will see the figure drop to