How “state-of-the-art” tech and “fortune” helps Williams mitigate lost F1 test

Williams Formula 1 team boss James Vowles doesn’t believe the squad is at a disadvantage despite missing last week’s Barcelona pre-season test.

The Grove-based outfit had hoped to hit the ground running in the new rules era, following its best season in a decade in 2025 when it finished fifth in the constructors’ standings.

But production delays to the new car meant it was forced to miss the opening pre-season test at Barcelona, leading to intense speculation over failed crash tests and weight issues.

Williams has just six days of testing ahead of it now before the start of the new campaign, though Vowles doesn’t believe his team is at a disadvantage because of this.

In a call with the media, including Crash.net, Vowles explained that Williams’ simulator work, as well as the information it was receiving from Mercedes on how its new power unit and gearbox were performing, “enables us to get ahead when we come to Bahrain”.

“I would have much preferred to have been in Barcelona,” Vowles said.

“That was the goal. That was what we were intending to do. We did not achieve it.

“However, what we did in terms of a week of VTT [Virtual Track Testing] that was successful and what we’ve been doing with both Carlos [Sainz] and Alex [Albon] on the simulator in tandem to while everyone else was in Barcelona, in addition, and we are fortunate that Mercedes had sufficient runners.

“So, there was quite a bit of information coming back on the gearbox and power unit that enables us to get ahead when we come to Bahrain.

“That means, I do not believe that with six days of testing we’ll be on the back foot.

“A little bit of that is fortune, because the engine and the power unit is reliable, the gearbox is reliable, and the VTT testing flushed out a lot of demons that are buried in the car.”

Vowles does acknowledge, however, that the lack of on-track running so far means there are gaps in Williams’ knowledge of its 2026 car in terms of correlation with its simulator data.

“What’s missing is that there’s a lot of knowledge for the drivers to inherently perfect what is going on on track,” he added.

“What’s missing is a correlation for where our aerodynamics really are and for where our vehicle dynamics really are.

“Track data is the only way of establishing that. So, there is a loss, but with six days of testing, with our drivers in the simulator - we invested in a state-of-the-art [simulator], and I’m very confident this is the benchmark in the business, up and running at the end of last year - we are able to mitigate a lot of this.”

Regarding potential weight issues with the new car, Vowles admits there will be no way of telling what the situation is until it has two cars fully built to spec and running on track. 

“In terms of weight, until there are two race cars built to the correct specification, going forwards its hard to comment on that,” he added.

“But your question was will that stop you being competitive?

“Right now, no one knows what the pecking order is, especially ourselves, because we haven’t been on track. So, it’s hard for me to answer that question.”