Williams

Formula 1/Victor Martins/Williams

Williams signs former Alpine junior Martins as ninth member of driver academy · RaceFans

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Williams has signed former Alpine junior driver Victor Martins to its academy.

Martins, who is currently in his third season of Formula 2, will take part in a test for the team this weekend. Williams will run a 2023-specification FW45 at Monza under Formula 1’s Testing of Previous Cars rules.

Williams sporting director Sven Smeets said Martins “has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a talented driver who is capable of winning championships.”

The 23-year-old won the Formula Renault Eurocup with ART in 2020, then clinched the FIA Formula 3 title with the team in 2022. After finishing his first season of Formula 2 in fifth place he fell to fifth in the standings last year, taking a single win in the partial-reversed-grid sprint race at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Martins took pole position for the first Formula 2 feature race of the new season in Australia. However the race was abandoned due to rain on the morning of the Australian Grand Prix.

He will join fellow F2 driver and Williams Racing Driver Academy member Luke Browning in the Monza test this weekend.

Martins’ move comes two months after Franco Colapinto switched from Williams to join Alpine as one of its four reserve drivers.

“Williams is an iconic team with an incredible history, and I’m confident this is the best place to be to help me achieve my goals,” said Martins. “This year, I’ll put all my focus into winning the Formula 2 drivers’ championship with ART Grand Prix and maximising this opportunity with the Driver Academy both on and off the track.”

He is the ninth member of Williams’ Driver Academy. Along with Martins and Browning, the others are Lia Block, Alessandro Giusti, Oleksandr Bondarev, Sara Matsui, Dean Hoogendoorn, Will Green and Lucas Palacio.

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carlos sainz jnr/Drive to Survive/Formula 1/James Vowles/Williams

Vowles reveals reality behind Drive to Survive portrayal of Sainz talks· RaceFans

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Williams team principal James Vowles has explained how his attempts to sign Carlos Sainz Jnr last year differed from its portrayal in Drive to Survive.

Vowles’ efforts to court Sainz are highlighted in the fourth episode of the latest season, which premiered earlier this month.

The episode shows Vowles vying for Sainz’s signature alongside competing bids from Sauber and Alpine. The process lasted several months: Vowles first approached Sainz at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December 2023, it became public knowledge the driver would leave Ferrari in February last year and Williams announced he had signed for them the following July.

One scene in the middle of the episode shows an anxious Vowles waiting as Sainz fails to appear on time to sign his contract. However the Williams team principal said he was always in close communication with his future driver.

Flavio Briatore, Drive to Survive season seven, 2024
Rival team bosses like Flavio Briatore courted Sainz

“All the way through – unlike what’s been portrayed, actually – Carlos and I were speaking daily or certainly every few days,” he told the official F1 channel. “There was never a break in communication.”

Although the likes of Alpine’s Flavio Briatore did make approaches to Sainz, Vowles said the driver never failed to keep him informed about the situation. “He was honest and transparent, as I was, all the way through on what his feelings and thoughts were,” said Vowles.

“That’s what’s made it, effectively, I think, a strong relationship, because that transparency from me showed him: ‘here’s our weaknesses, our strengths, here’s what’s happening’. When you do that across three weeks, four weeks, you can hide certain things. [But if] you do that across six months, which is what we were talking for, you can’t hide anything.

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Toto Wolff, George Russell, Drive to Survive season seven, 2024
Review: Play or skip? RaceFans’ verdict on every episode of Drive to Survive season seven

“[It was] the same from him. I saw the real Carlos underneath all of it, and that was important to me. I can see what his weakness is and his strengths were, and it’s why I could determine it really would work for all parties.”

Vowles said it had been a risky decision to allow the Drive to Survive producers to film their discussions and he was pleased with the depiction of them in the series.

“I think Netflix did a really good job,” he said. “It was even more twists and turns than you saw there.

“They captured a little bit of it, because we let them into our life. A big risk on our behalf, because at certain points, we could have looked like fools. But actually, capturing the emotion you go through when you’re going in this roller coaster, I think it’s a good thing for the sport to understand what really happens underneath. But there were more twists and turns than that.”

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alexander albon/Carlos Sainz/F1/F1 news/Formula 1/James Vowles/Olav Mol/Williams

Williams team boss Vowles puts rumours to bed: 'Everything is the same'

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Carlos Sainz did not have the best of starts to his first season with Williams. The Spanias spun off the track in Australia early on, then eventually finished in P10 in Shanghai after three disqualifications. Team principal James Vowles has however explained there is no difference between the cars of Alex Albon and Sainz.

Formula 1/Williams

Williams is not alone in racing “evolution” of last year’s chassis this season

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Williams team principal James Vowles has confirmed both his drivers are racing updated versions of last year’s car.

He clarified the team’s approach to the season following speculation Carlos Sainz Jnr was out-performed by his team mate in the opening races because he alone was driving an older-specification car.

Williams often ran its cars in different specifications last year as a result of the significant amount of damage it incurred over the season. However Vowles insisted there is no difference between the hardware Sainz and Alexander Albon are using. “Both drivers are using exactly the same thing, an evolution of the ’24 chassis,” he said.

“It’s the same chassis, the same front wings, the same gearboxes,” Vowles explained in a video released by the team. “Everything is of the same specification and standard.”

Vowles said the team approached the season this way in order to shift more resources to its work on next year’s car, as F1 will introduce drastically revised technical regulations for 2026.

“Both drivers are running an evolution of last year’s chassis,” he explained. “It’s evolved exactly the same way, but we always intended to go through this sequence of regulations, the last year of the [current] regulations, making sure that we are effectively evolving last year’s chassis while we’re redesigning from scratch.

“That’s really important because it allows us to put our eggs in an investment basket of 2026 and beyond. It’s not a financial question, it’s time resource. We’re all up against the cost cap, but it allows us to re-optimise and make sure that we’re getting everything for ’26 we can out of it.”

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Williams finished ninth in the championship with last year’s car but Vowles said they “knew there was quite a bit of potential within the chassis.” After the first two rounds of the new season they are tied for fourth place with Ferrari on 17 points.

“You can see we’ve moved up the field and I think there’s more performance to come from the package we have at the moment,” said Vowles.

As this year’s technical regulations are little changed from last season, Vowles believes the majority of teams have done the same as Williams.

“I think a number of teams on the grid have done something quite similar to what we’ve done,” he said. “Not all, but most will have done.”

Sainz joined Williams from Ferrari this year and has repeatedly said it will take him a few races to learn how to get the most out of his new car. However Vowles said he is encouraged that both drivers make similar comments about how Williams can improve their chassis.

“One interesting point of both Alex and Carlos is their feedback is very mirrored, so where we have weaknesses and where we have strengths, both are very confident on that,” he said. “And actually it has resulted in many of what we call the [in-car] tools – so the differential, the engine braking – all being very similar between both cars because their requirement for balance, the requirement for how they drive is very, very similar.

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“Perhaps more important than that, there’s some characteristics we still have that are perhaps not as good as what Carlos is used to from his previous days. That’s what we’ve got to be actively working on to make sure that we’re really digging deep and finding every bit of performance available, both in ’25 and ’26.

“But as two individuals, given that every human in the world is different, they’re incredibly aligned on what they need from the car.”

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2025 Chinese Grand Prix/2025 F1 season/Formula 1/Williams

FIA fines Williams €50,000 over missing video footage · RaceFans

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The FIA has fined Williams €50,000 (£42,000), of which €40,000 has been suspended, for failing to supply video footage from its car when requested.

Formula 1’s governing body introduced a technical directive prior to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend requiring teams to provide video from forward and rearward mounted cameras on their cars following track sessions. The footage is required so that the FIA can monitor the extent to which cars’ wings flex at speed.

The team failed to provide the footage because it apparently expected the FIA would supply Secure Digital cards to contain the files. It did not realise until after yesterday’s session began that the cameras contained no cards to record the footage.

The FIA stewards ruled “there was no suggestion that the wings were not in compliance with the bodywork flexibility requirements under the technical regulations” and stated the fine was solely for failing to supply the required footage.

Williams accepted its penalty and said in a statement it had no doubts over the legality of its wing design.

“We had concerns over the cameras not working in FP1, and as a result were in dialogue with the FIA throughout the session,” it said. “Following the session, the FIA and ourselves have reviewed all procedures, and we can confirm that the failure to provide footage in the allotted time was down to a miscommunication, and internal processes will be addressed as a result so that this does not re-occur.

“For completeness we provided all footage as requested in Melbourne with no issue and will continue to support the FIA and provide all required footage in a timely manner going forwards.

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“We have no concerns over the legality of our wing. It is the same wing we ran in Melbourne. Is fully compliant and we did not have to make any adjustments further to the issuing of the new TD. Yesterday’s issue was procedural and we are confident that we will provide all future recordings without issue.

“We understand that to ensure fair policing of technical regulations the FIA issued the resulting fine and we thank them for the constructive conversations and measured handling of this matter.”

Stewards’ ruling on Williams

TD034L was issued on 19th March 2025. TD034L addressed the topic of bodywork flexibility in the context of Articles 3.2.2 and 3.15.1 of the Formula One Technical Regulations.

TD034L made it clear that:

‘Teams are responsible for ensuring that cameras are fitted with a suitably formatted (FAT32 or exFAT format) and empty SD card at least 10 minutes prior to the start of any session during which the cameras are to be fitted’.

It is undisputed by the team that it failed to do so. The reason for the failure was apparently the team’s belief that the cameras would come fitted with SD cards supplied by the FIA. They did not check if they did.

They apparently relied on an email from the FIA Technical Delegate to one team member that suggested that the teams could supply their own SD cards. The team claimed that they assumed that the cameras that they installed on their cars were fitted with the SD card supplied by the FIA.

They noticed during the middle of the session that there was a red flashing light in the cameras and reported that to the Technical Delegate. However, they did not know what the flashing light meant and in any event, it was too late to fit the SD card(s) by then.

When the absence of the SD cards was discovered after the session, the team did not report the fact of their failure to install the SD cards to the Technical Delegate.

For avoidance of doubt, there was no suggestion that the wings were not in compliance with the bodywork flexibility requirements under the Technical Regulations.

Nevertheless, given that TD034L was clear in placing the responsibility for ensuring that the cameras were fitted with the empty SD card on the team, it was equally clear that the team was not in compliance with the directions in TD034L.

We therefore find that the team has infringed Article 12.1.1i of the ISC and impose a fine of €50,000 euros on the team of which €40,000 would be suspended until 31st December 2025 subject to the team not committing a similar infringement.

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Carlos Sainz/Chinese Grand Prix/F1 news/Formula 1/Williams

Sainz responds to a tough Q2 sprint qualifying exit: 'Not feeling at home'

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Carlos Sainz has explained that he is yet to feel one hundred per cent settled at his Williams team after finishing 13th in sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. The Spaniard, however, admits that he’s ready to continue learning in the search for a better result at the Shanghai International Circuit after crashing out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in the early stages. 

alexander albon/F1/F1 news/Formula 1/Liam Lawson/Red Bull Racing/Williams

Albon jumps to defend Lawson after his tough first race at Red Bull

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Liam Lawson’s first weekend as a Red Bull Racing driver was challenging. However, the New Zealander will have another opportunity to prove himself this weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. Alexander Albon, who previously raced alongside Verstappen, understands the difficulties of being his teammate better than most. On Thursday in China, Albon shared his thoughts on Lawson’s situation.

2025 australian grand prix/carlos sainz jnr/Formula 1/Williams

Williams explain role played by car’s systems in Sainz’s race-ending crash · RaceFans

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Williams team principal James Vowles has shed further light on what caused Carlos Sainz Jnr to crash out on the first lap of the Australian Grand Prix.

The team’s new driver spun into a barrier at the final corner in the wet conditions shortly after the start of the race. The Safety Car had been deployed due to Jack Doohan’s crash moments earlier.

Vowles said the combination of low-grip conditions and unexpected power delivery while the FW47 was in its Safety Car mode led to Sainz spinning.

“He was coming through the last corner, he was in second gear, he held a fairly constant throttle position – actually a tiny bit lower, a percent or two lower – and pulled for an upshift into third gear, so it’s a part throttle upshift,” said Vowles in a video released by the team.

“When he did so, what happens inside those conditions is we’re in a different mode, it’s a Safety Car mode, so that runs the systems in a very different way if we’re in flat out. And what happens is, as you would imagine, we have a disengagement of power and torque and then a re-engagement of power and torque.

“Now, there was a tiny bit more than would have been expected. For me, it was an accumulation of conditions.”

The team is looking into what changes it needs to make to prevent a repeat of the problem. “First and foremost, I think what we have to review is how and what we’re doing with those settings and that Safety Car mode in wet conditions,” said Vowles. “I don’t think we were optimum, and that’s on us as a team.

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“The second is that it was treacherous out there. I really can’t state that enough. When you’re going slowly, your tyre temperatures are being lost, any small amount of additional grip loss will be accentuated, and I think that’s what we have there.

“We’re still ongoing in terms of reviewing because clearly we need to make sure that we’re improving in every single area and providing a car to the drivers that’s predictable and consistent.”

After retiring from the race Sainz joined the team on the pit wall to help them react to the changing conditions with the remaining car driven by his team mate Alexander Albon, which led to him finishing a strong fifth. Vowles said the team was grateful for his input.

“What Carlos was doing was trying to provide as much information as possible, be that about car performance, the conditions, what was coming in on the weather radar,” said Vowles. “And his insight was fantastic. It was useful, it was clear.

“He actually said it was more nerve-wracking being up there on the pit wall, with the amount of information coming in, than driving around the car in those conditions, which I don’t believe for a second. But irrespective, it was still great to have him by our side.”

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