[4] Jack Aitken, Roy Nissany, Jamie Chadwick and Dan Ticktum acted as reserve and development drivers for the team.

[5][6][7] One of these reserve drivers, Jack Aitken, made his Grand Prix debut in the FW43 at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, replacing George Russell who was called up by Mercedes for the same event after Mercedes' regular driver, Lewis Hamilton, tested positive for coronavirus and was forced to miss the event as a result.

[1] The car was planned to make its competitive debut at the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, but this was delayed when several races were postponed or cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[13] The car was designed by David Worner and Jonathan Carter, both of whom are in their first year in the team having previously worked with Red Bull and Renault respectively.

George Russell commented that he believed that Williams still had the slowest car after the team finished last in the preceding season, but that it was an improvement on its predecessor, the FW42.

[16] The FW43 appeared in pre-season testing with a red, white and blue livery branded with the logo of the team's title sponsor, telecommunications company ROKiT.

However, in late May, prior to the start of the delayed 2020 season, the team announced that the title sponsorship arrangement with ROKiT had been terminated and that a new livery would be revealed before the first race.

[22] In the end Williams finished in 11th place in 4 races:[23] the Austrian, Italian, Tuscan and Emilia Romagna GPs, 3 courtesy of Latifi, and 1 from Russell.

The team finally scored their first points of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Latifi and Russell finishing 8th and 9th on the road, respectively, before being promoted one place up each following Sebastian Vettel's disqualification.

At the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the team paid tribute to their founder, Sir Frank Williams who died a week before the race.

To honour him, the logos were presented behind the sidepods and carrying a message on the halo device read "I feel the need, the need for speed", this is a reference from the film Top Gun.