The evolution of a Formula 1 car is such that it morphs throughout the season to coincide with the tracks the calendar visits. 2020 has seen some of the most extremes in car packages in recent years. George Russell (GBR) Williams Racing FW43.
25.09.2020. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 10, Russian Grand Prix, Sochi Autodrom, Sochi, Russia, Practice Day. Credit: XPB Images
 
Up until this season, taking a Formula 1 car around the Nürburgring in October would not have ever been representative of anything that teams would see in an F1 season, let alone race there. However, the Eifel GP at the Nürburgring on October 11, 2020, isn’t the only peculiar race of 2020.
Racecar Engineering spoke with Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams F1 to discuss what the 2020 Formula 1 calendar has meant in terms of development of the FW43 and where the most extreme developments have been. ‘As the 2020 Formula 1 calendar slowly rolled out, we knew that we were going to have to develop some extreme interpretations of a Formula 1 car,’ said Robson.

Barcelona 
‘We knew that Barcelona in mid-August would be incredibly hot, and it was tough on all the systems onboard the car. Between the two cars, we got through quite a lot of chassis work during FP1, but the main observations were around the tyres, which weren’t easy to use in the hot conditions.’
The chassis work that Robson refers to was changes made to coincide wi...