Williams has revealed their new livery for the 2022 season, the first after the sad passing of founder Sir Frank Williams, during a short livestream, including shots of their glorious distant and recent past issued on their official website. 

Welcome to the new era. Introducing the FW44 💪 pic.twitter.com/nkOIOYmhpO

— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) February 15, 2022

The innovative design features as main color a blue darker than in the previous season, with light blue and a surprising iridescent red highlights, as opposed to 2021's white, blue and yellow color scheme. It was showcased on a test vehicle, just like Red Bull did last week. Pictures of the real car will be issued in the afternoon, after the first shakedown.

Your FW44, ready for the challenges of 2022 💪 pic.twitter.com/4rXOwFaMyI

— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) February 15, 2022

CEO and Team Principal Jost Capito, who took over the British team in December 2020 after very difficult seasons in 2019 and 2020, brought it back to their first podium since 2017, introduced their new challenger, which will be known as the FW-44.

"Over its history as an iconic Formula One team, Williams Racing has shown great strength and sophistication. The new visual identity of the 2022 car perfectly encapsulates these characteristics that the staff, drivers and fans have demonstrated time and time again."

"As we move into the new era of our sport, the FW44 highlights the transition to the future, as well as acknowledging the timeless qualities that make us who we are. Last season we were thrilled and proud to make such strong advancements as a team, with a number of well-earned points-scoring results in addition to a podium."

"Looking forward, we want to build on this success, and the FW44 perfectly embodies these ambitions to return to the front of the grid. I look forward to witnessing this progression with Nicholas and Alex at the helm," he concluded, introducing the drivers for the first season under the new regulations.

After George Russell's move to Mercedes, the driver with more experience of the team will be Canadian-born Nicholas Latifi, approaching his third season as official driver for Williams. Runner up in the 2019 F2 season, he got his first points in the top single seaters series at Hungaroring last year.

WE ARE WILLIAMS 💙 pic.twitter.com/JZAeui8nNI

— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) February 15, 2022

Latifi was impressed by the rather different look of his car, but is looking forward to the first time he'll be able to drive it:

"I'm a fan of the new livery. Keeping the blue was important as it's synonymous with Williams Racing, but it's a pattern we've not seen before and the fluorescent red will pop on track which I really like. It's a fresh new look to start off the new era of F1. I'm super excited for testing in Barcelona, to get back behind the wheel, push and see what the car can do."

The Canadian also hopes that the championship will be tighter in the new era, and that Williams will be able to keep up the good form shown in 2021:

"Pre-season always feels like quite a long time, but it's been really busy and there's been a nice build-up at the factory with lots of hard work from everyone. The new regulations should allow for much better racing so I'm excited for the challenge and we will aim to gather some good data from testing, to take us into the first few races."

He will be partnering former Red Bull Racing driver Alexander Albon, who returns to F1 after a year as reserve driver and competing in DTM, for the second time after their DAMS stint in Formula 2. The Thai driver is satisfied with the livery as well, and hopes to be able to completely understand his new challenger before the season open in Bahrain.

"The FW44 livery is clean and simple. I like that we've gone for more blue with the dynamic diamond finish and a little bit of red; it looks really good and I'm looking forward to seeing it out on track. The upcoming Barcelona track session will be about making sure we're efficient with our time to best ensure we have a competitive package heading into the season."

After the huge effort he put in assisting Max Verstappen in his title fight in 2021, Albon is ready to embark a new adventure under a different constructor.

"We don't have many days before our first race and so we quickly need to understand which areas of the car are strong and where we need to make improvements. I'm sure it will be a little bit of a learning curve as we all try to learn how to get the most out of the new regulations, but the objectives and the way that we focus on this car is very much the same as in previous years."

"Ultimately, we're all still trying to get a racing car around a track as quickly as possible," he concluded.