Vowles confident Williams won’t be on ‘back foot’ for 2026

Williams team boss James Vowles addressed the squad's absence from the recent Barcelona shakedown, expressing confidence despite the disrupted start to the year. Delays in the FW48 program led to the team missing the debut of F1's new era cars. Instead, Williams conducted extensive Virtual Track Testing (VTT) and driver-in-loop simulator work with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon. Vowles believes these efforts, coupled with insights from Mercedes on gearbox and power unit reliability, will prevent them from being on the 'back foot' during the upcoming six days of pre-season testing in Bahrain. While acknowledging the lack of real-world aerodynamic and vehicle dynamics correlation data, Vowles emphasized the state-of-the-art simulator as a key mitigating factor. Looking ahead, he admitted the significant challenge of climbing from fifth to fourth in the Constructors' Championship, aiming for 2025 to establish a new baseline for continuous progress.