Vowles backs Williams to recover from difficult 2026 launch

Williams team principal James Vowles remains confident that the team’s recent progress will eventually translate into sustained success, despite a troubled start to Formula 1’s new regulations era.

Williams had emerged as one of the midfield’s most envied teams in 2025. The squad returned to the Grand Prix podium with new signing Carlos Sainz and finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, its best result since 2017.

That momentum did not carry smoothly into 2026. The team’s FW48 challenger arrived late over the winter, while its development programme left the car significantly overweight and short of the required all-round performance.

Those problems have undone much of Williams’ immediate progress under the new technical rules. Even so, Vowles believes the setbacks are part of a longer rebuilding process and is convinced that the team’s broader plan can still deliver results.

“It will all come good,” Vowles said, maintaining his belief in Williams’ direction despite the difficult beginning to the season.

The challenge now is to turn the lessons from the FW48’s delayed and overweight launch into meaningful development gains, while preserving the foundations that helped Williams climb to fifth in the championship the previous year.