Williams team principal James Vowles has explained the context behind the team missing the private test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, admitting it was a consequence of chasing maximum performance and pushing the organisation's operating limits.

Speaking before the reveal of the 2026 livery, the former Mercedes strategist linked the delay to how late the teams are pushing to release key designs. With the 2026 regulations creating a steep and early development curve, the temptation to commit to a chassis, wings, floor, and bodywork as late as possible to capture gains is strong. 

Commit too early, and you could arrive at the first race with an out-of-date design, but if you commit too late, then you increase the risk of manufacturing lead times biting you. This is what happened to Williams.

“We stopped development of the 2025 car very early but also what you want to make sure you're doing is you want to make sure you're pushing your decisions on when you release chassis, front wing, rear wing, floor, bodywork as late as possible to catch all of the development goodness.”

He added: “So if you print a car, if you treat it that way, you say ‘OK, we're going to print the car’ in April last year. We, of course, would have a car, but it would be very slow compared to the capability of it, and you'd be behind in the upgrade race.

"The second is we have to test ourselves as a business. Championship level is not just being able to develop the car either aerodynamically or vehicularly. It's also pushing the boundaries of how long it takes you to get an idea produced into a real working car, and so we have to continually move that forward as a result of it.

"We were testing ourselves as a business. So both you keep the performance goodness, but also we have to start pushing ourselves more and more to get towards championship level."

But the team failed to hit its target of attending Barcelona. 

Williams FW48

"I would much prefer to have been in Barcelona. I'm going to pre-empt all that. That was the goal. That was what we were intending to do. We did not achieve it.”

While Vowles argues that despite missing testing, his team has mitigated the impact of this through alternative prep work in the shape of VVT mileage, simulator work from Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon and feedback from Mercedes, its power unit supplier, which recorded over 500 laps across its drivers. 

“We are fortunate to the fact that Mercedes has sufficient runners that there's quite a bit of information coming back on both the gearbox and the power unit that enables us to get ahead when we come to Bahrain, means that I do not believe with six days of testing we'll be on the back foot.”

There is, however, experience that cannot be replicated.

"What's missing is there's a lot of knowledge for the drivers to inherently perfect what's going on on track. What's missing is a correlation for where our aerodynamics really are and a correlation for where our vehicle dynamics really are. So track data is the only way of establishing that.
 
"So there is a loss but with six days of testing, with our driver-in-loop simulator that we invested in - state-of-the-art and up and running in the last year – we are able to mitigate a lot of those."

He ended: "Right now no one knows, and I really do mean no one, what the pecking order is."

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Adrian Newey, now leading the Aston Martin Formula 1 team into 2026 as team principal, has commented on the use of AI in how the outfit operates. This comes after the Silverstone squad showed off its impressive-looking AMR26 in the private Barcelona testing last week.

With the 2026 regulations demanding plenty from the teams with changes to aerodynamics, chassis and power unit, development through machine learning and similar techniques will be used by all teams. These techniques are especially important now due to the lack of real-world running before the season start, and will continue to be as the cars develop quickly over the first year.

In fact, Lance Stroll's first day of testing amounted to only a "handful" of laps being completed. Two-time champion Fernando Alonso banked 61 laps across the Friday. More testing will come later this month in Bahrain from 11 February.

This use of AI doesn't come in the form of ChatGPT or any other consumer chatbots. It instead comes in the shape of complex and specialist packages - something that has been used for years before anything like this was released to the consumer market. 

"Machine learning has been around for a long time," Newey said in the team's Undercutinterview. "It's been superseded, if you like, as a buzzword by AI – everyone knows what AI is now. In truth, the AI that most people are using day to day is mainly just internet search-based and it’s pattern recognition."

He continues, explaining the team's usage: "What we are using machine learning, or AI, for is much more specific tasks and therefore how we use that AI is incredibly tailored.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

"We're typically not using anything off the internet because we are too specialised for that, but there are instances of using pattern recognition to help with relatively simple tasks and even race strategy through simulation and game theory."

He added: "There are more advanced applications... which I'd rather not talk about at the moment. 

"The thing about things like compute power, data processing, artificial intelligence, is it's all advancing so rapidly. What's new now will be pretty much out of date in 12 months.

"It's obviously incredibly exciting for us, and it's up to us to work with our partners to keep up with that because the opportunities it creates are absolutely immense. It's almost as if we have to keep reopening our minds to what's available, not on a daily basis, but certainly on a six-month basis, to take the most advantage as things evolve."

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It’s a demonstration of the merciless nature of Formula 1 that Williams, statistically one of the most successful teams of all time in terms of championships won, has been bumping along the bottom for more than two decades and narrowly avoided financial extinction at the turn of the decade.

Williams last claimed the drivers’ and constructors’ championships in 1997 and ceased to be in the mix for regular grand prix victories in 2004. It last won a race in 2012, a thrilling outlier for Pastor Maldonado in Spain.

The team’s reliance on drivers who brought a budget rather than great talent was characteristic of its decline, and Williams became a relic of the era when teams were owned and run by the individuals whose name was above the factory door. It nearly followed the likes of Tyrrell and Colin Chapman’s Lotus into oblivion.

There have been more mis-steps under the ownership of the Dorilton Capital investment fund but, since the appointment of former Mercedes strategist James Vowles as team principal, the direction of travel (to employ a frequently used Vowles-ism) has been towards improvement. The team finished fifth in the constructors’ championship last season, its highest since 2017.

As Williams holds its necessarily low-key 2026 season launch on Tuesday, having missed last week’s ‘shakedown’ in Barcelona, let’s look at its prospects for the season to come.

Williams Barcelona livery

What’s new at Williams?

In terms of frontline personnel, Williams enjoys continuity in terms of its technical team, which is maturing after a recruitment drive in 2023-24. The FW48 will be the first Williams with ex-Alpine technical director Matt Harman fulfilling that role after his promotion from design director last year, but the main focus since that influx of new staff has been to bring the factory’s antediluvian facilities up to modern standards after years of underinvestment.

During a visit to the team’s Grove home in early January, Motorsport.com saw a great deal of new machinery, particularly in the area devoted to rapid prototyping. The team has also been overhauling its production and quality-control systems.

What’s the biggest challenge to Williams?

Having to cancel its presence at the Barcelona ‘shakedown week’ was both an embarrassment and a setback for the team. Last year, it made a point of being the first to take to the track with its new car, the purpose being to signal a clean break with the issues of its recent past.

It’s understood that while the monocoque had passed its mandatory crash tests, the nose cone did not. This has prompted a wave of speculation that the FW48 is overweight – particularly in the areas that then had to be strengthened to pass the crash tests. Vowles was noticeably evasive on that subject in an online ‘round table’ interview last week.

The fact is that it is extremely difficult to engineer a modern F1 car to the minimum weight limit, as evinced by that figure only being reduced by 30kg this season despite the cars and their wheels being narrower.

Missing the shakedown means it will have to spend time in the Bahrain tests previously earmarked for performance work on running through basic operational checks that rivals will have completed in Barcelona. Obviously, there were varying degrees of success in that regard; while both Mercedes drivers completed race simulations as well as plenty of laps, others such as Audi and Cadillac had a more fraught time.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

What’s the strongest asset for Williams?

When the hybrid engine formula was first introduced in 2014, Williams enjoyed a brief resurgence by dint of having the Mercedes power unit – by far the most competitive. That advantage faded with convergence and as others shifted to Mercedes power.

Though it’s unlikely Mercedes will enjoy an advantage of similar magnitude under the latest set of engine regulations, well-placed rumours over several months have suggested the new Merc power unit is very strong. In theory, its reliable showing through the Barcelona shakedown mitigates some of the disadvantage Williams faces, having missed that track time – but running a power unit in a car designed hand-in-glove with the chassis is a different matter from running as an engine customer.

What Williams certainly enjoys is a highly competitive driver line-up. Carlos Sainz is smart, fast, and a proven GP winner, while Alex Albon has shown similar levels of pace.

What’s the goal in F1 2026 for Williams?

Much as it would love for this to be another 1992, when it turned up with a car more than a second a lap faster than its competitors, Williams knows it’s starting this season on the back foot already. What it doesn’t need is for the delay in car completion to compound into lack of running during the tests.
 
Hitting the ground running in Bahrain would be its ideal scenario in the short term; in the further future, being in the mix for regular points to build on last season’s fifth place would be a bonus.

How Williams benefits from F1 Barcelona shakedown - despite no running

Williams ready for Bahrain as team denies major weight issue with delayed F1 car

Williams skips 2026 Barcelona test amid shock F1 car delay

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Esteban Ocon believes Mercedes might be favourite for the 2026 Formula 1 season, while Audi is expected to struggle alongside Cadillac at the back.

Mercedes impressed in the five-day, behind-closed-doors shakedown at Barcelona. The new Silver Arrow completed 500 laps (according to unofficial data) in just three days, with decent pace relative to the competition, and therefore is the first team that comes to mind for the 29-year-old Haas driver.

“I think it’s a bit early to talk about the pecking order, but we’ve seen that Mercedes was very fast over the whole test,” Ocon said.

“We’ve also seen that the Ferrari was in a very good position, the Red Bull was doing well, the McLaren was in the mix too.

“For now, that’s what Barcelona told us; it will be tighter in the group behind – VCARB, Alpine and ourselves – and a little step behind, for now, Audi and Cadillac.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

“It’s a bit early to talk about it, we’ll need to see in Bahrain. But for now, that’s what we think is happening.”

Cadillac is a brand-new team, so was always expected to struggle somewhat with its first, Ferrari-powered challenger. Audi, formerly known as Sauber, is a new power unit manufacturer and was hampered by a number of technical issues at the Catalan track – one of which was identified as a hydraulic leak.

Logically, Ocon mentioned neither Aston Martin, which ran for just over one day, nor Williams, which skipped the Barcelona test altogether.

How Aston Martin rushed the AMR26 to Barcelona on a 50-year-old Antonov plane

How Williams benefits from F1 Barcelona shakedown - despite no running

Despite teething problems on some cars, reliability was much better than feared, which surprised the Frenchman – especially with Haas completing more laps than anyone bar Mercedes and Ferrari. That was despite shaking the new VF-26 down at Fiorano less than two days before the Barcelona test got under way.

“No, definitely not, I was not expecting that,” he added. “I think it was an awesome job, you know, by the whole team.

“First of all, driving in Fiorano [until Saturday evening] and then putting the car down on Monday, to drive at 9am in the morning – I think we exited at like 9:15am, but the car was ready at 9. That was just a crazy effort.

Esteban Ocon, Haas

“I never thought that would have been possible. I thought there would have been some problem on the motorway along the way, that there would be some traffic or whatever, and the car would be late. But, yeah, we were ready at 9am and we did 150-whatever laps [that day]. It was crazy.

“No, I was not expecting that, that it went so smoothly, but it's good, it's very good, because it means that the reliability so far, we have it.

“Day two was a little bit more difficult on Ollie's side, but there are easy things to fix. So we should be on point on that side. And now the next thing, obviously, is to make the car fast, because it's reliable – it's good – but it needs to be fast.”

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Mercedes technical director James Allison has been surprised by the reliability of the new regulation cars at the private testing in Barcelona.

The 2026 Formula 1 season marks the start of a new regulation era in the championship. Included in the major regulations overhaul are a power unit with a 50:50 split between internal combustion and electric power, smaller and lighter cars, and active aerodynamics. 

To give teams more testing opportunities ahead of the season-opener in Australia from 6-8 March, private testing was held in Barcelona last week before Bahrain testing on 11-13 February and 18-20 February.

As he reflected on the testing during the live Mercedes launch event, Allison explained that he had expected the week at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya to be filled with red flags.

"I think the biggest thing that surprised us, and I'm guessing it's true also for our competitors, has been the really quite astonishing level of reliability that we've seen up and down the grid," Allison explained.

"With everything new as it is, I think it would have been reasonable to expect this first shakedown test to have been just a symphony of red flags and smoking vehicles, but that really hasn't happened.

"And in fact, for the most part, the reliability of these cars has been absolutely comparable, in some cases, better than last year's winter testing, with things that were far more mature, and which were very well understood.

"So that has definitely been a surprise to us, a welcome surprise, and I hope something that means that we can go into the new season, just concentrating on the racing, rather than trying to keep everything held together with baling wire and sticking tape."

The Barcelona shakedown was also the first opportunity that the teams had to check out the competition.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

"Well, intensely, of course," Allison said when asked how interested he was in the other teams. "Everybody spends the whole of the year or so it takes to design and build these cars, working in a vacuum, absolutely focused on what you're doing, intensely caring about putting as much performance as you possibly can into those cars.

"But knowing that up and down the land and abroad as well, there are other groups doing exactly the same, wrestling with the same challenge, and thinking about it probably differently to the way we are. And so when we do all emerge into the light, we just fall upon their designs to try to see what they may have found that we may have missed.

"And we take as many photos as we can, and then if we see something that is tricky to understand, we will put people on it until they do. If we see something that we think, 'Oh, crikey, we should have thought of that', then we'll start working on that as fast as we can.

"And just overall, we are completely shameless plagiarists, and the reason we're shameless is that we know all of our competitors are exactly the same. Part of the sport is doing what you can with the skills you have on your own. And then when you all come together, then working out what other people have done and trying to learn from them as well."

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The Mercedes Formula 1 team will host a 2026 launch event today, Monday 2 February, after unveiling the livery of the W17 on Thursday 22 January on social media. Team principal Toto Wolff will be joined by drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and others, to kick off the Brackley outfit's season.

This comes ahead of Bahrain testing on 11-13 February and 18-20 February. The first race will be the Australian Grand Prix on 6-8 March.

Here is everything you need to know to watch the Mercedes 2026 launch event live.

When is the Mercedes 2026 F1 launch event?

Monday 2 February

Local time: 11:30 GMT
CET: 12:30
PST: 03:30
EST: 06:30
JST: 20:30
CST (China): 19:30

How to watch the Mercedes 2026 F1 launch event

The Mercedes 2026 F1 launch event will be streamed on the team's website. There will also be behind-the-scenes footage released via the Brackley outfit's social media channels.

Who will be at the Mercedes 2026 F1 launch event?

Both drivers, George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, will be present at the launch event on 2 February alongside CEO and team principal Toto Wolff. There will be a panel discussion with the drivers, Wolff and reserve driver Fred Vesti.

Senior members of the technical leadership team are also set to be present to walk through the 2026 regulation changes, and there will be a deep dive into the new sustainable fuels with Mercedes' title and technical partner, PETRONAS, as well.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Mercedes private testing

Mercedes concluded its third and final day of private testing in Barcelona on Thursday 29 January.

"From a reliability perspective, it’s been a good week for us," Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said in a press release. "The car has enabled us to run the programme exactly as we wanted each of the three days and that’s what we hoped for coming here to Barcelona.

"It is a huge testament to the hard work of everyone at Brackley and Brixworth in bringing this car to life. We’ve also made good progress with some of the challenges we saw on days one and two and that is pleasing.

"That said, in Barcelona we have only really been focused on proving out the W17. In Bahrain, we will switch to set-up exploration which you can’t do here when it is so cold. That will give us a much better idea of the car’s relative abilities as we progress towards the 2026 season."

Russell added: "It’s been another decent day and overall, a positive shakedown for us here in Barcelona. The car feels nice to drive but more importantly, we’ve completed plenty of mileage and had no major issues. The minor issues we’ve come across we’ve been able to resolve which is the purpose of such running.

"The car is working well but we know that it is not about the car working well, it’s about how fast it can go. We don’t have any indication of that yet so we will have to wait until Bahrain until we get any indications of the relative pecking order. It’s very early days but we can be pleased with this initial foundation we have put in place.

"It’s an exciting time for our sport with possibly one of the most impactful regulations changes we’ve seen. It’s an honour to be representing Mercedes, particularly as we mark the 140th anniversary of Carl Benz’s invention of the motor car today. It’s quite apt to be behind-the-wheel of such an innovative machine today; I am excited to continue our journey towards the season and look ahead to going racing."

Antonelli also said at the end of testing: "Overall it has been a good shakedown for us. We’ve had our own issues but that hasn’t hindered our running too much. We’ve completed a lot of laps and today, I was able to drive for 90 more in the morning session. That is useful mileage to help build our learning about the W17 and gather plenty of data. We focused on the C3 tyre today but still on longer runs rather than anything performance related. We were able to understand a little more about how the car and the Power Unit reacts to a few different set-up options.

"I am now looking forward to having a few days to work with the team and digest everything from Barcelona. I am already looking forward to being back in the car in Bahrain for the first official test though and continuing the journey towards the start of the season. We will go there with a good understanding of the car and hopefully we can hit the ground running once again.

"It’s very cool to be part of the incredible history of Mercedes innovation, particularly as we put this new car through its paces on the 140th anniversary of Carl Benz registering the patent for the motor car. We are all proud to represent the three-pointed star and I cannot wait to see how we continue to innovate under these new regulations in the months and years ahead."

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Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar has explained what caused his crash on Tuesday at the Barcelona Formula 1 shakedown.

The new Red Bull driver suffered the only major accident of the shakedown week at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as he went off at the final corner late on Tuesday in wet conditions.

Hadjar’s Red Bull car reportedly suffered heavy rear-end damage which required the team to bring in replacement parts ahead of its final day of running permitted, having already completed its opening two days on Monday and Tuesday.

Red Bull duly returned to the track action on Friday, with Max Verstappen at the wheel all day as he completed 118 laps to push the team’s combined total to 303 laps for the shakedown.

Hadjar said his off was triggered by switching from wet to intermediate tyres on the rain-soaked track.

“It was nice to have a good day on Monday,” began Hadjar, who still notched up 158 laps before his crash. “It was very productive and we managed to do a lot more laps than we had expected, everything went pretty smooth and we had only minor issues. It was quite impressive considering it was our first day with our own power unit.

“Unfortunately, on Tuesday, just after switching from wets to inters, I lost control of the car in the final corner and I know the aftermath wasn’t ideal for the team.

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

“The positive is that I have already started to understand and work on things in the car, there are still a lot of things to tweak of course, but it has been steady so far.

“These cars are different, very different, there is definitely a lot less load in general and it is a bit more predictable compared to the previous generation, they are a bit more straightforward. It is easier to play around with them and on the PU [power unit] side there are a lot more options for the driver to play with.

“I couldn’t have prepared for this season any better and I am hoping to come into the year strongly, but we are definitely not done with the work yet, I am learning every day."

Max Verstappen: "Still quite a bit of work to do" on Red Bull F1 engine

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has fully backed his new driver, who was promoted to the senior team at the expense of Yuki Tsunoda over the winter after just one season in F1, and is confident the French driver will still take a positive learning experience from the shakedown.

“We got more than a hundred laps in on Monday with Isack, which was a positive day and then Tuesday was a bit more difficult for us,” Mekies said. “Max ran in the morning and only got one long run in before the rain came, but we felt it would be good learning and interesting to run in the wet with this new generation of cars.

“We switched to Isack in the afternoon and there was no chance for dry tyres, but we got some good data in the wet. He went off at the end of the day, in what were very tricky conditions and with a lot of things still to get right on the car side.

“It was unfortunate, but these things happen and it came after a very positive day on Monday for him. The number of laps Isack completed and the development and learning he and the team gained cannot be underestimated.”

Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal

Mekies also lauded Red Bull’s mechanics and engineers for getting the RB22 car back on track on Friday to complete its first test with its new Ford-backed Red Bull Powertrains engine.

“It was an incredible job by the team trackside and back on campus to get RB22 back on track for Friday, there have been some long nights to ensure we got a third day of running,” he explained. “Max was in the car all day and he too got over 100 laps on the clock, giving insightful and beyond valuable feedback, as we continue to learn about this new car and PU.

“We have a lot to take away from this week and Max's experience and detail with engineering will help us shape the preparations for Bahrain and beyond. In terms of what we were expecting from the power unit in these first three days, I can only stress how proud we are of everyone back at base who delivered us this PU.

“Ford were here trackside to see everything come to life and it's a big thanks to them for their part and support in this special story.

“Of course, it is very early days and nothing is perfect but we have started to learn already and work as one team on this. It was a great satisfaction, but it doesn't change the magnitude of the journey ahead of us. We know we have to do our homework and take things step by step.”

Barcelona F1 shakedown Day 5: Lewis Hamilton tops the timings for Ferrari

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Lewis Hamilton’s wealth of Formula 1 experience puts him in the best place to assess the new generation of cars – and he’s enjoying what he is driving so far.

The seven-time F1 world champion is entering the fifth major regulations overhaul of his career and has often been vocal about which era of car he has preferred to race with, especially after a gruelling experience in the ground-effect period of 2022-25.

Perhaps this gives fuel to Hamilton’s positivity over the new generation of F1 cars which made their official track debuts at the Barcelona shakedown this week, where the British driver was on hand to test out Ferrari’s SF-26 following a filming day run at Fiorano after its launch last week.

Hamilton, who unofficially set the fastest lap of the shakedown with a 1m16.348s and contributed to Ferrari’s total of 444 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with team-mate Charles Leclerc, says the new F1 cars are more enjoyable to drive as they are more forgiving than the knife-edge stability that was a hallmark of the ground-effect cars.

Barcelona F1 shakedown Day 5: Lewis Hamilton tops the timings for Ferrari

“The car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive,” Hamilton told F1 after the Barcelona shakedown. “It's oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it's a little bit easier to catch. I would definitely say more enjoyable.

“But we definitely have work to do to improve, of course, like everybody does. But I think we've had great debriefs. Everyone's really on it. I really feel the winning mentality, like, in every single person in the team more than ever. So it's a positive.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Hamilton’s comments followed an upbeat assessment of Ferrari’s shakedown programme, which included the unusual plan to run in wet conditions on Tuesday. Red Bull was the only team to join Ferrari on track once rain arrived, but the British driver was eager to experience the SF-26 in the wet, having had the “very hard” learning curve of his first wet-weather action in a Ferrari being in last year’s Australian Grand Prix.

“It's been a really enjoyable week, honestly. I think a huge amount of work over the winter on my side, but then what the team has done over the winter to make changes going into the test [is positive],” he explained.

“A bit of an unusual start to the week when we tested and had a complete wet day, which was not something you would normally opt for, but last year I went to the first race and the Sunday of the actual race was the first time I had driven the Ferrari, and that was a very hard race. So it was good to have that experience and get that knowledge.

“And then just to see the mileage that we've been able to get the last couple of days, due to just so much great work from all the people back at the factory, which I'm really grateful for because having consistency, not having problems...

“Of course, there's always small things, but we didn't really have any downtime moments, while I'm sure perhaps they could potentially come up in the next weeks, but otherwise it's a really, really solid couple of days.

“And then in terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years.”

Lewis Hamilton: "Today I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing"

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