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It’s fitting that Scalextric should choose Williams in 2023 for its first modern-era slot car set of recent times. That was the year a new era began for the team with a grand heritage – long celebrated with popular Scalextric models dating back to the eras of Alan Jones and Nigel Mansell. The season marked a reset and new hope that revival for a fallen giant really is possible.

The Scalextric set, which is on sale now, comes complete with a pair of Williams FW45s from that 2023 season, one for Alex Albon in the team’s standard blue livery, and the other for Logan Sargeant in the famous Gulf colours Williams ran in Singapore, Japan and Qatar. It was an upbeat year for the Grove squad as new team principal James Vowles took charge and put Williams back in the groove. The team rose from dog last in 2022 to a fine seventh in the standings.

So can this team that remains the fifth most successful in terms of F1 wins ever return to what many consider its rightful place at the top of grand prix racing? It’s a steep climb from where the team finds itself today, having slipped back to ninth out of F1’s ten and with little to fight for as the 2024 season rolls towards its conclusion.

But hope springs eternal. That’s surely the case for Carlos Sainz Jr as he contemplates his next career move: from a race-winning Ferrari in which he showed the best of his true self at the recent Mexican GP to a Williams team for 2025 that has just 17 points to its name ahead of the final three races of 2024.

Sainz can be under no illusion to the challenge he faces, as he takes a step or three back down the grid in the hope of taking one or two forward in the future. That he has committed himself to the project is a testament to the vision of Vowles, who has led the team with a surety of purpose since assuming the role in January 2023. The former Mercedes chief strategist has a plan to revive Williams and he’s sticking to it.

If anything, rising from its previous sorry state to take that seventh place in the 2023 constructors’ standings perhaps raised expectations to unrealistic levels, which patently haven’t been matched this year. But perhaps we shouldn’t focus too much on championship positions right now. Vowles has said from the start that incremental gains to finish a place or two better than the previous year are all very well, but they are not why he took the job. He is aiming higher, while also warning that such ambitions will take time to deliver.

“Our focus isn’t about whether we are eighth, seventh or ninth; it’s making proper significant steps up the field back towards the front,” Vowles told Motor Sport last year.

Others, along with Sainz, have bought in to what he believes is possible. That’s why Pat Fry, a seasoned F1 veteran of 30-plus years, left Alpine for Williams last year to become its chief technical officer. Vowles believes the recruitment of Fry is a “significant step” on the path to the big revival. “What you want is an upward spiral and momentum of belief from individuals that this is the journey that they want to partake on,” he said.

“They know it’s not a journey of one year or three years, it’s much longer than that, and yet they’re willing to give up great positions at current entities to come and join us, and I’ve seen that literally week-on-week now.”

Consider too how far Williams had fallen. Vowles has spoken about rebuilding the “culture” within the team, which fell painfully behind in its technical capabilities over recent years.

“The biggest surprise to me was how well the team were doing, given what it was lacking,” said Vowles. “It was basically miracle work done by a bunch of individuals that are so passionate about Williams. I think we were just basically using up goodwill from people that will give everything, rather than doing things in a more structured way.”

Back at the end of 2023, Vowles even covered off what a potential fall would mean as if it might not be a complete surprise to him if a slip in position came to pass: “In reality if we finish tenth next year but we’ve broken systems that had to be broken, we’ve created structure and infrastructure, I’d be completely happy and comfortable with that,” he said.

“It’s not about where we finish in any one particular year, it’s what we’re doing underneath the skin of it all to create long-term success out of it.”

The target, as it is for every team on the grid, is 2026 and the next big technical rules reset. That’s a huge opportunity for Williams and one that Vowles is determined the evolving team will make the most of. This revival was never likely to be a steady, linear progression because F1 is too complicated for it to be that simple. But the much-needed evolution is happening and optimism is quietly building.

That’s what Sainz bought into. So did Pat Fry. So did Alex Albon, who will remain on board for a fourth consecutive season next year. Let’s keep the faith, as they all have. And in the meantime via Scalextric, we can re-enact the best of the past and recent times on a track laid out on our household floors…