© Williams Enlarge

Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds says the new nose regulations had a bigger effect than expected on design for its 2015 car, the FW37.

New year, new look The new noses for 2015 will be lower and tapered, much like they were in the mid-1990s, which comes after a backlash to some of the striking nose designs last season. There is less interpretation in the rules than last year meaning it is unlikely we will see such variety in 2015.

Read all about the new regulations for 2015 here

On Wednesday Williams released two images of its 2015 challenger, the car it hopes follows on from the success enjoyed by the FW36 last year. Williams rose from ninth to third in the constructors' championship last year, partly thanks to a switch to Mercedes power.

After a backlash to ugly noses in 2014 the regulations for this season were changed, something Symonds says impacted the direction Williams went during the design of the car.

"The change in regulations offered us a slight headache," Symonds said. "The new front bulkhead and nose geometry had much more of an impact than we had initially anticipated and the effect on the aero was profound. The team have worked hard on pulling back the deficit these regulations have made for us."

Williams continued developing its 2014 car long into the season but Symonds is adamant this will have no impact on the success of its predecessor. In fact, he thinks the work carried out on the FW36 will set Williams in good stead heading into the new campaign.

"The desire to beat Ferrari to third place in the constructors' in 2014 meant we pushed our development through to late autumn, but the size of the team is now at a point where it was able to sustain this development whilst still working on the FW37. We felt we came up against design barriers in the FW36 and so took the opportunity to remove those barriers for the benefit of the performance. The FW36 carried a reasonable amount of ballast, so we were able to make alterations to the design for added performance without the fear of adding excessive mass.

"The notion for the FW37 was to look closely at the FW36 and its performances. We then went about recognising what had worked well and identifying and resolving the areas that we felt needed to be improved. Although the aerodynamics of the car were impressive there is always room for improvement particularly as we handle the new 2015 nose regulations."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.