AUGUST 29, 2026

Williams launches repair programme after winter mistakes

James Vowles says Williams has a large programme of long-term work under way after admitting that mistakes made last winter are still hurting its 2026 car.

Williams has admitted that it is still paying for mistakes made last winter and has started a wide-ranging programme intended to stop them being repeated.

The admission from team principal James Vowles follows a difficult Dutch Grand Prix and a run of increasingly frank comments from Carlos Sainz about the FW48. Williams is ninth in the Constructors' Championship with 11 points, which is not where the team expected to be after placing so much emphasis on the new regulations.

Vowles says the response is not one convenient upgrade package but a collection of projects spread across the organisation.

We have huge numbers of projects in the background, he said, adding that the work was aimed at understanding what went wrong during the winter and producing a long-term fix.

Some new components will appear before the end of the season, but the more important work is taking place at Grove. That is sensible, because a car can be changed much more quickly than the systems which created it.

Sainz has described quality as Williams' biggest weakness and has argued that the car concept is flawed. Those are uncomfortable comments, but they are also more useful than pretending that ninth place represents an unlucky run of Sundays.

Williams has at least removed one distraction by agreeing new contracts with both drivers. Alex Albon will remain through 2027 and Sainz has made a multi-year commitment. Vowles says their decisions have had an important effect inside the team because they show that the drivers still believe in the longer-term plan.

The next question is what Williams does with that confidence. The team has spent several years explaining the scale of the rebuilding job, from old production systems to the limits imposed by the cost cap. There comes a point, however, when rebuilding has to appear on the timing screens.

The encouraging part is that Vowles is no longer describing the problem as a single weakness which can be cured by the next aerodynamic package. The less encouraging part is that a large list of projects usually means there was a large list of things to put right.