Williams Racing made significant progress last season after a very challenging few years, but with them losing one of the best drivers on the grid, it may take the team a little longer to be back at the very front.
But there is still a lot of hope, optimism and excitement at the team, with them hoping to be back in the points this season.
Nicholas Latifi will drive for the team once again this season, in what will be his third season in the sport.
The Canadian driver has performed better than what many expected and claimed his first points in the series at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with an impressive 7th place finish.
Alex Albon makes his return to sport after a year’s absence after being demoted to Red Bull’s reserve driver for 2021. He has already stood on the podium twice in his career and been close on several other occasions.
At the pre-season shakedown in Barcelona, the team ended the first session with Albon in 11th and Latifi down in 14th place, with both drivers completing 66 laps each.
The second day proved to be another productive session for the team, with Albon going 9th fastest and Latifi in 11th.
The third and final day of the shakedown saw the team complete 107 laps, with Albon completing 94 of these, with the intermediate tyres getting a run out in the afternoon.
The team arrived in Bahrain with a lot of hope and Albon put in a fantastic testing performance, completing 104 laps, ending the session in 5th place.
Latifi took the wheel of the car on the second day of testing, but after 12 laps his car went on fire and he turned into a firefighter as the team called it a day on track. This incident meant that the team lost several hours of track time and may have just put them on the back foot going into the season.
The third and final days of testing saw Latifi make up as much time as he could, with 128 laps around the Bahrain International Circuit, with Albon competing for a further 18 laps as testing came to a conclusion.
This season is going to be an interesting one for the Williams team because it is a chance for them to find something in the new regulations that helps propel them further up the grid.
Nicholas Latifi has been a solid driver for the team and while he might not be World Championship winning quality, another season of stability on that side of the garage is what the team needs at the moment.
His financial backing is also very important to the team as they try and get to the higher end of the midfield battle.
Alex Albon is a very talented driver and while his time at Red Bull was mixed, he did show promise and deserves to be on the grid this season.
He will really help the team improve and will be out to show Red Bull why they made a mistake not keeping him in a seat last season.