What’s really behind Williams’ F1 car delay and early 2026 setback

Williams team principal James Vowles has explained the decision to skip the first F1 2026 pre-season test in Barcelona.

The British squad are missing this week’s opening pre-season test following delays completing their new car, but team boss Vowles has confirmed that Williams have now passed all the necessary tests and will be ready to run the FW48 in the first Bahrain test.

Prior to the opening Bahrain test on 11-13 February, Williams will carry out a filming day run with their 2026 challenger.

“It clearly wasn't our plan, and it's incredibly painful, but I do want it to be acknowledged it's the result of our determination to push the limits of performance under the new regulations,” Vowles told media including Crash.net.

“We are transforming here in Williams and fast. And one of the tasks that has been on my shoulders for a few years is making sure we transform this business out of the absolute maximum rate possible.

“In my experience, the only way you achieve that is pushing the boundaries and limits hard and aggressively and find your limitations. There's no point being just underneath the curve or underneath the curve if you want to transform at speed. You need to find the pain points and put them right very quickly, which is exactly what we're doing.

“I'm confident in our decision to miss Barcelona, and I'm confident it was the right one to prepare for the first test in Bahrain and Melbourne. I'm pleased to say that we've passed all necessary tests and we're ready to run in Bahrain, and we'll carry out a promotional filming day ahead of it. We're also carrying out a VTT [Virtual Test Track] as a physical car testing.”

Vowles stressed Williams “could have made Barcelona” but explained that would have come at a cost in other areas, something he was not willing to do.

“We could have made it. But in doing so, I would have to turn upside down the impact on spares, components, and updates across Bahrain, Melbourne, and beyond,” he said.

“The evaluation of it was that for running in a cold, damp Barcelona, against doing a VTT test, against the spare situation, and frankly, there was zero points for running in a shakedown test.

“We made the decision, and I stand by it, that the right thing to do is to make sure we're turning up at Bahrain correctly prepared, and prepared in Melbourne as well.”

Overweight “murmurings” addressed

There were rumours Williams’ chassis was between 20 and 30 kilograms overweight, but those claims have been dismissed by Vowles.

“There's no knowledge of the weight until we get to Bahrain to in terms of understand where it is,” he explained when the speculation was put to him. “That’s not avoiding the question, but you need to get all the sensor packs off to actually understand where we are. I think it's a very aggressive weight target.

“And if we are over, so anything you see out there, there's not a single person that will truly know it. It's impossible to know it because you need the car together without sensors in the right form. And that doesn't exist today.

“If we end up being over the weight target, then from that point onwards, it would be an aggressive programme to get it off. But I think right now, anything that you're seeing is murmurings in the media are murmurings. I'll come out and explain to everyone at the point where we know that, but that isn't today.”

And Vowles is confident Williams’ decision to skip the Barcelona shakedown won’t leave them too far behind their rivals in terms of preparation for the forthcoming season.

“I'm confident we won't be behind for the following reason. We've still got six days of good testing in Bahrain. It's normally dry,” he said.

“Furthermore, we're fortunate. We have the power unit provided by Mercedes, the gearbox provided by Mercedes. So the learning that they're going through this week in Barcelona will carry over into us, into Bahrain.

“Now it's not that I want to be resting on their hard work, but also it is worth stating that that is still an advantage for us that falls out of it, or a disadvantage that's negated. I'm confident that with six days in Bahrain we will run through the programme that we need to, and it's why I run the VTT now.

“What I wanted to do is to make sure that from the outset in Bahrain we have a reliable car ready to go, so that we're not sitting there doing what a lot of individuals and teams are trying their best to do in Barcelona, but not leave the garage. We’ve got to be there ready to go.”