Up until now, the Grove-based team has only used its new livery during a season introduction at an event in New York earlier this month.

And due of the weather, the team decided against going ahead with its original plans for a filming day run at Silverstone this month. Instead, the day before formal pre-season testing starts, the team unveiled their new FW46 challenger.

Social media posts featured Logan Sargeant driving the new vehicle out of the garage at the Sakhir circuit.

Under new owner Dorilton Capital and team principal James Vowles, who was brought in at the beginning of the previous season, Williams is undergoing a makeover.

Vowles decided to stop working on the 2023 vehicle early in order to focus more on the progress the team needed to make this season.

Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance at Williams, stated at the close of the previous year that while the new car will not appear drastically different, it should offer a significant performance boost.

When asked if he thought it would be a step change or evolution, Robson replied, “I think a bit of both.” Although it may appear to be evolving visibly, I believe the details will be very different.

Consequently, perhaps, we will now be able to unlock some significant advancements, such as front locking and other balancing features. That will make the three-day Bahrain testing more difficult, as I’m pretty confident it won’t work out exactly as planned.

“It will take a lot of work to maximize it, but even though it won’t appear radical on the outside, hopefully we’ll see some significant changes in performance.”

Although Williams’ seventh-place result in the previous year’s constructors’ championship gave them hope, the team struggled with an FW45 car that was challenging in some situations.

“I think it was consistently inconsistent,” Robson stated. Because of the wind, which still affects us more than other teams in terms of how it affects the car’s balance, I believe we can forecast when we are going to suffer.

Additionally, some corner types—especially the long, 190-degree corners—will cause you to view all of them when you turn through them in different directions depending on the direction of the wind. Subsequently, the type of front locking entrance into that particular corner