Williams set for "back foot" start to F1's new era

Williams believe it will start F1's new era in 2022 "on the back foot" after lacking the resources to take part in this year's end-of-season test.

The remaining nine teams are due to be involved in the running in Abu Dhabi in mid-December when they will use mule cars in tandem with Pirelli's new 18-inch tyres.

Without a mule car, and although the test is for rookies, head of vehicle performance Dave Robson has confirmed the team "won't be doing anything".

“My understanding is that if you don’t have the mule car, you are not entitled to do the test, so we won’t be there,” added Robson.

The test is seen as an important one in many respects for the teams in attendance to gain an early understanding of the tyres that will definitively be used by Pirelli after lengthy evaluation work this year and given the changes in the aerodynamic rules.

Assessing what Williams will lose out on by not running in Abu Dhabi, Robson said: “We’ve not done any exercise to put numbers on it.

"We know that the mule car would have been beneficial but at the time we had to commit to that, we just didn’t have the resource to do it.

“So it’s a decision that was made an awfully long time ago and I’m not complaining about it.

“What will we ultimately lose? We start the winter testing a little bit on the back foot probably but I would hope if the car is running well then after we’ve done the tests that we can catch up quickly.

“We would like to be at the test but we are not so I think ultimately we won’t be that far behind once the races start.”

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