Williams boss defends ‘incredibly painful’ F1 shakedown decision

The Williams team principal confirmed the team’s 2026 car has now passed all mandatory crash tests and will be ready to run when official testing begins on February 11, after opting not to use any of its permitted days in Spain.

Speaking during the Barcelona week, Vowles admitted the absence was far from ideal.

“[It] clearly wasn’t our plan, and it’s incredibly painful,” he said. “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 explained that the scope of the 2026 overhaul has stretched the team’s production processes further than ever before.

“The car this year that we’ve built is about three times more complicated than anything we have put through our business beforehand,” he said.

“It means the amount of load going through our system is about three times what it used to be. And we started falling a little bit behind and late on parts.”

He rejected suggestions that the delays point to deeper problems, confirming the FW48 had cleared its crash testing and denying that weight will be a significant concern.

“I’m pleased to say that we’ve passed all necessary tests and we’re ready to run in Bahrain,” Vowles said, adding that Williams will complete a 200km filming day ahead of the test.

While acknowledging the team could have made it to Barcelona, Vowles said the knock-on effect would have been too damaging.

“In terms of Barcelona, we could have made Barcelona testing – simple as that,” he said.

“But in doing so, I would have to turn upside down the impact on spares, components and updates across Bahrain, Melbourne and beyond.

“The evaluation of it was that for running in a cold, damp Barcelona, against doing a VTT [Virtual Track Test], against the spare situation, then frankly, there was zero points for running in a shutdown test.

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