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Formula 1

What progress looks like for Williams in F1 2025

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“I don’t want to keep saying that we’re sacrificing this year for next year. But this year is definitely a time to do that.”

This line pretty much sums up Alex Albon’s thinking on Williams’ upcoming campaign, highlighting the team’s laser focus on catching the right wave in 2026 when F1 introduces all-new cars.

But that doesn’t mean Williams is just throwing in the towel this year. Performance in F1 is not a light switch you can flick on but the result of a long process of installing the right people to build a winning culture and the right tools to execute that vision. The team that is supposed to reap the rewards in the future from a large-scale rebuild is largely the same team that runs the Grove factory today, with team boss James Vowles revealing the team’s staff has swelled to over a thousand people already.

A lot of the pieces those people are helping Williams build should already be coming together this year, whether it’s better ideas, tools or methodologies. Some of those are already in place, as evidenced by the contrast between Williams’ launch last week and its dire situation 12 months ago, when its 2024 car came together late and severely overweight.

“The car will be on the weight limit and on time,” Vowles said. “We demonstrated to the world that we can build a car to the correct standard and make it leave the garage within one minute. So that’s two very different changes from where we are last year. The quality of the fit, the quality of the build, the quality of the product is a huge step upwards. The packaging is another step upwards. And we haven’t even got into aerodynamics and suspension and performance yet.

“Every area I look at on the car is just a world of difference for me from where we were before. We’re not finished on our journey, and I’m not here standing on our soapbox saying that we’re a benchmark, but we’re on the right pathway to getting back there.”

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

Despite all those tangible gains, Williams won’t be sure if it has outdeveloped its direct rivals until the end of the Bahrain test, and arguably even until Melbourne qualifying. Albon would like to aim for the “top half of the midfield”, but says his evaluation of whether Williams is on the right track is still more based on the momentum of change he can see behind the scenes than the timesheets.

“I would like to see us making a step from last year for sure, just in terms of quantifying that it’s a little bit difficult to say,” he added. “I’d like to be fighting up at the top half of that midfield fight. We’ll see how big of a midfield fight there is this year. I think it’s going to be closer even to the top teams.

“But it’s not so much result-based as you would expect. I think that last year, if you just look at where we were in terms of timing and being late and being overweight, these kinds of areas were fundamental to be fixed for this year and we’ve already started in a much better position. There are loads of other examples, but they’re the kind of things that I want to see improved for this year, because I think it’s what’s going to create the foundation for a better 2026.”

Some of the changes Albon is hinting at are related to the hiring spree Williams has embarked on, but also to the infrastructure projects the squad has commissioned. The days of keeping track of car parts via a Microsoft Excel sheet are now also a blush-inducing relic of the past. This is all part of the process that Vowles embarked on when he was hired by team owner Dorilton Capital in January 2023, the last phase of which won’t be completed until 2027 at the very earliest.

“Everyone is aligned that we want to be winning world championships. What I can demonstrate is very clear progress that’s taking place in infrastructure, culture, technology that’s kicking in, we’re moving into a new building,” he explained. “This year we’re bringing in what I think will be a benchmark driver-in-the-loop simulator. We’re bringing in tools and technologies coming this year. That was started in 2023, so if you put your focus on the following year, you’ll miss out about long-term evolution.

“There are bits we’re doing today that won’t come online until 2027. That’s unfortunate, but that’s part of a longer journey. The fact that we’ve gone from 700 people to over 1,000 individuals means that you’ll have some low-hanging fruit, just producing a better car – having more performance being added to it. But I consider that secondary to the long-term investment to get us where we need to be.”

Carlos Sainz, Williams, James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing, Alex Albon, Williams

Carlos Sainz, Williams, James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing, Alex Albon, Williams

Photo by: Getty Images

Vowles rejects any comparisons with Sauber, where many felt an overwhelming focus on 2026 hurt the current team’s performance last year and, with it, dented its morale.

“I ask you a question back. Do you think that happened in one year, or do you think that was multiple years? That’s the point, it took multiple years for that to happen, so it takes multiple years to build back,” he said.

Vowles says the team, which first put the 2025 car in the wind tunnel back in March last year, already has a firm end date for the in-season development of its car in mind, although he stopped short of disclosing when Williams would fully shift to the 2026 project.

“Not at the moment,” he said. “Mainly because I want to see how we get out the gate, but the bias is very much towards 2026. 2 January was the first legal date our 2026 car was in the wind tunnel and it hasn’t exited since then. We front-loaded the development on the 2025 as much as possible to then front-load the 2026 car.

“The only thing that’s going to make a difference is obviously when we turn a wheel in Australia. But even then, I don’t think our pathway will change where we are.”

Nevertheless, with a second experienced driver alongside Albon in Sainz – a proven race winner too – Williams has vastly upgraded its driver line-up, as well as any other changes that will already have an impact this year.

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With its well-documented weight issues Williams took a long time to get off the mark last year and could only manage ninth in the standings. Regardless of its 2026 focus – which will be shared by a lot of its rivals – 2025 should present a step up by all metrics if it aims to keep up the momentum created by the buzz around its launch.

In this article

Filip Cleeren

Formula 1

Carlos Sainz

Alex Albon

Williams

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Formula 1

What Sainz is giving Williams compared to rookie Colapinto

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When it came to the 2025 Formula 1 drivers’ market, James Vowles didn’t think twice.

Sainz officially became available on 1 February 2024 as Ferrari revealed it had signed seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton alongside Charles Leclerc, and the four-time grand prix winner’s services were coveted over the following months.

Alpine and Sauber in particular were hoping to secure the Spaniard but failed, despite potential links between the future Audi team and his father, who had represented the German brand in the previous three runnings of the Dakar Rally.

Instead of banking on a manufacturer drive, Sainz bought into the Williams vision that was presented to him by team principal Vowles, who has now been in office for two years and set to modernise the legendary British outfit, with over 300 hires during that period.

Attracting Sainz was crucial for Williams. Incumbent Alexander Albon has delivered since he joined the team in 2022 – scoring 43 of the team’s 53 points over the last three seasons – but youngsters Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto both struggled with too many crashes, despite flashes of speed from the latter.

Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46

Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

For Williams, Sainz is a safe pair of hands that can be trusted to bring consistent results, and an equally valuable technical mind.

“A really good way of working with Alex, especially when we look at control systems – so differentials, brake maps, etc.,” Vowles said when asked what Sainz was bringing to the team, as Williams launched its new FW47 challenger.

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“It brings a whole new dimension, where Franco, for all of his skill in the car, obviously we were almost teaching him along the way what the control systems do.

“We now have an expert in it that has won races, and that’s really brought the team up. The same with starts – think of all the ancillary items.

“So not even driving the car, I can just see a dimensional change in how we’re performing, from where we were before to where we are today.”

Vowles was particularly impressed with the immediacy of Sainz’s input, when he drove the FW46 in last year’s post-season test at Yas Marina Circuit.

“When he tested in Abu Dhabi, he gave us very good, instantaneous and direct feedback on the aerodynamics,” the Briton added. “The good news is he is aligned with Alex, and the more good news is they were areas we were targeting for 2025.

“We were able to understand where our weaknesses lay relative to a car he’d driven just a few days before that had winning potential – and more importantly make sure that the direction of travel that we’re in, which I’m pleased to say is correct, was on the right pathway.

“He knows what excellent looks like: he was in a race-winning category last year, and a car that was a benchmark for a lot of the year, so he brings that with him.

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

“Finally, this one’s just a little bit more qualitative, but I see an organisation around me that is smiley, happy, whose shoulders are lifted because they can see a pathway forward towards success, and that very much has Carlos’ and Alex’s names written all over it. So that’s what he brings to it.”

How long will Sainz remain smiley himself, though? The former Toro Rosso, Renault and McLaren driver got used to being a consistent podium achiever and victory contender during his time at Ferrari, but it will be a whole different ballgame with a team whose latest top-three result on merit dates back to the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and whose best finish in 2024 was Albon’s seventh position… in Baku as well.

“My honest point on that is I don’t know how I’m going to react to fighting for P7 to P15,” Sainz pondered. “I don’t know how much I’m going to miss it. I don’t know how much fun I’m going to find it.

“How much will I miss a win, and how jealous will I be of people that are fighting for positions that I used to be fighting for? I cannot say how much I’ll feel that.”

What will help Sainz adjust to the situation is how comfortable he is within the team. When it comes to his new squad, the veteran is rapturously laudatory: “I’m very happy, I’m very motivated, I’m excited, I feel supported.

“I have a team principal and a team that fully trusts in my abilities and that wants to listen to what I say.

“What I like from this team is that they’re extremely excited to hear me, to listen, and they’re asking a lot of questions.

“I feel everything that I’ve said has been applied, and I think it could have an impact soon.”

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

Sainz too will be required to make an impact and be at the top of his game. “You can tell the midfield has caught up a lot with the top teams, and that’s why in Abu Dhabi Q1 we were all within half a second of one another,” the 30-year-old pointed out, with 0.431s then separating second-placed Valtteri Bottas from Colapinto in 19th position.

“So to fill that half a second over a full lap, we’re talking about half a tenth per corner. Am I good enough to fill half a tenth per corner? You need to be really good to fill it.”

Williams will certainly need it, as teams’ performances are expected to keep converging through this final season of regulatory stability in F1.

Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren and Alex Kalinauckas

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Ben Vinel

Formula 1

Carlos Sainz

Williams

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Formula 1

Why adding to Williams’ F1 legacy would be Sainz’s “proudest moment”

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History is not lost on Carlos Sainz as he becomes the fourth driver in Formula 1 to race for the Big Three of Ferrari, McLaren and now Williams.

Sainz has become something of what pejoratively would be described as a journeyman, a very good driver below the absolute superstar level who has frequently moved teams in order to find a permanent home to deploy his talents, which in his case is not only his speed but also his technical nous and collaborative mentality which has made him an extremely valued member at any of his previous outfits.

Coming off the Red Bull conveyor belt in one of its most productive eras, Sainz opted to leave its satellite team Toro Rosso for two years at Renault, before landing a McLaren drive in 2019. Two years later the possibility of a dream Ferrari seat was impossible to turn down, and his four-year stint at the Scuderia was not only his longest for a single team but also his most successful, bagging four grand prix wins.

But Sainz’s Ferrari dream came to a premature end as the Italian powerhouse grabbed the opportunity to dislodge Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, forming a mouthwatering partnership of F1’s most iconic team with its most famous and successful driver.

The news was a blow to Sainz, who was then presented with a range of much less desirable midfield outfits to pick from. But he has since turned the page, finished his Ferrari stint with dignity and accepted his new challenge at Williams, the once great team that is facing a huge rebuild under investor Dorilton Capital and led by team principal James Vowles.

“The only thing I can tell you is I’m very happy, I’m very motivated, I’m excited, I feel supported,” Sainz said after taking his new car for 2025, the Williams FW47, on a first date around Silverstone at the team’s ambitious Valentine’s Day launch.

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

As anyone reading this can attest to, there’s nothing like feeling valued by your employer in any professional walk of life. And Vowles was absolutely desperate to bring in someone of Sainz’s calibre for his racing pedigree, intimate knowledge of Ferrari’s race-winning methods and his cooperative personality that is bound to gel well with Alex Albon.

“I have a team principal and a team that fully trusts in my abilities and that want to listen to what I say, and I have confidence in my abilities to help the team to move forward. I like Alex as a team-mate in how we can both push this team forward, so the whole project just motivates me a lot, and I’m just looking forward.

“How much I will miss winning or how jealous I will be of people that are fighting for positions that I used to be fighting for? I cannot say that yet, but I can tell you that I’m proud and happy to be part of a team like Williams and to join a project that the team has trusted me to help them in that recovery process.”

Make no mistake about it. If Lewis Hamilton hadn’t felt the urge to leave Mercedes for a final opportunity to race in red and make a fresh start at Ferrari, and the Scuderia had presented Sainz with a long-term contract extension, he would have signed it in a heartbeat.

But even if going to Williams wasn’t his first choice, and Sainz admitted he is curious to find out how he will cope going from fighting for podiums and wins to fighting for a point, there’s an appeal to the once successful team that stretches beyond its current capacities.

Alain Prost, Williams FW15C Renault, 1st position followed by Ayrton Senna, McLaren MP4/8 Ford

Alain Prost, Williams FW15C Renault, 1st position followed by Ayrton Senna, McLaren MP4/8 Ford

Photo by: Motorsport Images

For newer F1 followers – hello and welcome – it might be harder to imagine, but long before Red Bull and Mercedes showed up, Williams, Ferrari and McLaren were the sport’s undisputed Big Three, leaving mere breadcrumbs for the competition. Between 1974 and 2004 only two other outfits managed to win the world constructors’ title, Lotus in 1978 with Mario Andretti and the late Ronnie Peterson, and the 1995 Benetton team of Michael Schumacher and Johnny Herbert. Williams’ haul of nine titles was only recently matched by McLaren last year, joint second behind Ferrari’s towering tally of 16.

Entire generations of fans therefore grew up with Williams, Ferrari and McLaren ruling the roost. So did Sainz, who was glued to the TV screen as a child in Madrid when Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya took the fight to Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, in what would prove to be Williams’ most recent stint as a regular front-running team, with a fondness for F1 history undoubtedly passed on by his father, rally legend Carlos Sainz Sr.

Little did Carlos Junior know that he would end up racing for all three, a feat only three drivers managed before him: Jacky Ickx, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost.

Not the worst company to be in, even if Williams’ circumstances are vastly different today than they were when Mansell and Prost muscled Williams’ Renault-powered cars to back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993, just before Sainz was born.

Nevertheless, while signing for Williams is a massive step backwards for now, there is a historic dimension to completing the set of F1’s legacy Big Three teams he will now have driven for that is not lost on the 30-year-old.

When asked by Motorsport.com about the prospect of becoming the fourth driver to do so, he grinned: “I think if you would have asked me when I was 10 years old and I started to fall in love with Formula 1, which teams I would have loved to drive for one day, I would have definitely picked those three.

“I’m in my 10th year in Formula 1, and I’m joining Williams at a very important moment for Williams, where it’s going through some key changes in its history. Nothing would make me happier and more proud, and it would definitely be the proudest moment of my career, if one day I can be on a podium with this team.

“I want to help in that process of a historic team. It’s the second most successful team in Formula 1 and being part of that process back to the top of Formula 1 is what motivates me. I think you guys can tell I’m happy. I feel supported by this team, and I think that’s hopefully going to bring out the best version of myself.”

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

Sainz is not alone in his affinity for the history of the sport and Williams itself. Team boss Vowles says he’s acutely aware of the responsibility of being a custodian of the Williams brand and the legacy left by Sir Frank Williams, the team’s iconic founder and force of nature who passed away in 2021.

“We absolutely have a responsibility towards the late Sir Frank,” Vowles said. “I joined this team because it was the benchmark in the sport that redefines certain elements for me and brought me into the sport. And that’s why I’m here heading up Williams today. It means something to me, something very deep and personal.

“My goal is simply to bring this back to a championship level and along the pathway, I want to make sure we do good to Sir Frank, his name and his legacy.”

There is plenty of evidence to suggest Williams is at least on the way up, but only time will tell if it goes all the way to the top again. But however far it may go, alongside early adopter Albon it now has another key figure in Sainz who will leave no stone unturned to get there. 

The tenacious and intelligent Spaniard is just the type of driver Sir Frank would have liked.

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In this article

Filip Cleeren

Formula 1

Carlos Sainz

Williams

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Formula 1

“Bold” FW47 launch shows Williams’ progress after 2024 hardship

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Carlos Sainz has hailed Williams’ “bold” approach revealing – and more crucially testing – its 2025 Formula 1 car with media in attendance.

The legendary British team unveiled its new FW47 car on Thursday at Silverstone, with a live event immediately followed by a filming day for its drivers Sainz and Alexander Albon.

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This is in comparison to difficulties encountered 12 months ago with the initially overweight FW46, whose shakedown was delayed because of tricky weather but also due to car parts having been produced late.

“This is a good show of Williams’ progress, to be bold enough to prepare a test where all of our partners are here, all the media is invited to see the first laps of the car,” Sainz rejoiced. “It shows the trust that Williams has in its new tools to produce a car that is going to be here on time, is going to be working well – like it did today, without any issues.

“It’s a good showing to the outside world.”

In from Ferrari, new hire Sainz had the privilege of giving the new machinery its first laps on the shorter, 2.89km international layout based out of the grand prix pitlane.

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

Initially equipped with wet tyres on a not-so-wet track, the Spaniard completed two laps before pitting and giving a short interview to Williams ambassador Jenson Button in the garage.

“Everything went fine, which is good news,” Sainz said. “An install lap of a newly born car is always a bit tricky. But everything worked as it should, and now we’re ready to get into the run plan.

“First, I need to give the feedback – you’re not letting me give the feedback! – of the two or three things that I felt that could be improved, or feeling inside the cockpit, and everything that I want to obviously talk to them about. So now, once we finish this interview, I’ll give the feedback, and then we’ll get the car ready to run on slicks and probably start pushing it little by little.”

Eventually summing up the day as “positive”, Sainz had already been impressed with the squad when he drove the FW46 at the Abu Dhabi post-season test, just days after his last grand prix appearance for Ferrari.

“That was very positive, because at Williams, in Abu Dhabi, I found a car that was honestly a bit better than I thought, or better than I expected. Obviously, with some deficiencies, compared to the cars that I’ve been driving, but not massively far off.

“I can just tell you that the I found the team full of motivation, full of energy – not easy after a triple-header; [in the] Abu Dhabi test I normally see people just wanting to go home. The energy that I saw that day – and the run plan that we managed to follow to perfection [in order to] execute a good day – was important to me, and it was a very important test that I think is going to help going into Bahrain.”

In this article

Ben Vinel

Formula 1

Carlos Sainz

Williams

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Formula 1

How Williams’ new F1 car build system works

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It was a moment that caused jaws to drop aplenty in the 2024 Formula 1 season: Williams team boss James Vowles revealing he’d discovered his then still-fairly-new squad was using a single, gigantic, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to itemise its entire car build package.

The list ran to multiple thousands of cell entries – an approximate figure of 20,000 was at one stage mentioned – on a single document. It stunned Vowles when he first clapped eyes on it in 2023.

After all, it was a very far cry from the state of the art, purpose built, software systems he’d been used to working with at ex-employer Mercedes, as it churned out title-winner, after title-winner across the previous decade.

Such a discovery formed part of the Briton’s crusade in 2023 – his first as Williams team principal – to get CapEx infrastructure spending such systems fall under out of the F1 cost cap. This was a central pillar to his plan to turnaround Williams’s results.

Vowles opted to reveal the spreadsheet’s existence at the Bahrain season opener last year.

This was done to explain why the squad that’d been semi-regular points scorers in 2023 suddenly only had the pace to score once in the first 10 races of 2024 and why the team was dealing with a parts production problem.

Last year’s FW46 did not get a shakedown before pre-season testing and was later revealed to be overweight to the tune of 0.45s a lap in its initial specification. This eventually came down as the team’s upgrade plan kicked in.

Alex Albon, Williams FW46

Alex Albon, Williams FW46

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

The added weight was caused by many of the FW46’s parts having to initially be made using heavier metal than usually would have been the case with carbon fibre – because Vowles’ plan to go from relying on a spreadsheet that was time-consuming skimming through alone, to using the modern systems long in place at other squads meant everything took a lot longer to produce.

Those metal parts then came with added, and even more painful, costs for Williams in 2024.

Not only was the extra weight a factor in the crashes Alex Albon and his then team-mate Logan Sargeant encountered early on in Australia and Japan last year, the hefty metal parts were at times breaking chassis tubs during impacts and so enforcing added repairs and replacements – all of which had further cost cap effects.

But this time around, Williams’s new 2025 challenger – the FW47 – has been built in time for the squad to host a Silverstone shakedown attended by team partners, fans and the F1 press corps.

And, more importantly, the FW47 starts off life already at the 798kg minimum car weight limit.

When Autosport asked new Williams recruit Carlos Sainz on Friday what the team was telling him about the current car build compared to 2024, he said it’d been “night and day” different – and better.

Autosport had already quizzed Vowles about the upgrade production systems, which he revelled in first replying: “We don’t use an Excel spreadsheet!”

James Vowles, Team Principal Williams with Alex Albon, William

James Vowles, Team Principal Williams with Alex Albon, William

Photo by: Williams

“The big change is we are using modern day tools that are the benchmark for what we need to be doing,” Vowles added.

“Basically, what we call ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MRP (Material Requirements Planning), PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) – the systems used to know what parts you have, where they are, and what the materials you have [for them], etc.

“We’re using benchmark systems 1739558607. There’s still work to do, because once you introduce that, there’s an amount of pain that comes with it.

“So, we’re not firing on all cylinders yet, but that will happen across the course of 2025.

“To answer your question, you simply can’t [have it as it was before] – almost using humans having to understand where every bit is in order to make the car.

“We’re relying now on process and structure. You always get a little bit of pain when you’re doing that [going through the process of modernising these systems] and the car next door is a testament to where we’re going.”

What Williams now has to replace the infamous spreadsheet is in effect a digital map of the FW47’s entire architecture.

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

Within this – which one senior team insider described to Autosport as an arrangement in a hierarchical system for every part – the map can be quickly accessed and traversed.

Each part on the FW47 can now be visualised individually, as well as fully represented on screen, and then the parts and materials needed to be built can be itemised and categorised in depth.

The PLM element means the system can also quickly log how long all parts have been used on the car and therefore when each part is approaching the end of its lifespan.

But perhaps the most important element for Williams as 2025 pre-season testing approaches is that, having gone through its 2024 car build pain, this time around it has produced a challenger with which it already seems quietly confident.

“A good car,” as Albon put it, when Autosport asked what his first impressions had been of the design on-screen. “It’s an evolution, as you can see.

“Really impressed with the packaging of the car. I think that’s been really well done.

“I think the quality in general, if you look at the quality of the parts, has been a really great job from everyone at the factory. There’s been a step-up in that sense.”

Night and day indeed.

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In this article

Alex Kalinauckas

Formula 1

Carlos Sainz

Alex Albon

Williams

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Formula 1

Williams may be focused on 2026, but FW47 shows hints of team’s regeneration under Vowles

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Thankfully, the mooted Valentines’ Day special livery that enrobed the Williams FW47 was none too garish, once the car was revealed during its Silverstone shakedown on Friday. The dark blue screenfade effect was actually quite cool, almost like a gateway into a badly damaged ’90s CRT screen – with the lingering screen burn of a time when Williams was at the zenith of Formula 1. It has no secrets about its lofty ambitions to return there.

The good ship HMS Williams is picking up steam. James Vowles, now at the helm for a third year, has picked up a highly-rated new crewman and a new title sponsor – its first since ROKiT was involved with the team during its turn-of-the-decade nadir. But the team has been increasingly keen to point out that its focus on the FW47 is, in effect, a brief layover – success under the 2026 regulations is the current destination.

That’s not to say that Williams’ engineers, under the leadership of Pat Fry, phoned it in – the team still wants to be competitive, after all. However, there’s clear evolutionary steps from the FW46, a car that grew in stature through the season but one that was also prone to being hurled off the road.

One would expect the brief to have been to reduce that instability, one that seemed to affect the rear end in medium-speed corners or in low-grip conditions. The usual parameters also apply: add downforce, reduce drag, make it nice to drive…

Unlike the McLaren launch, Williams’ car showed an entirely new front wing assembly, complete with new nose and revised positioning of elements to follow a somewhat contemporary chain of development in this area. By comparison, the FW46 had a broad, flat nose design that appeared to be influenced by Fry’s time at Alpine; the FW47 has a more svelte approach by presumably narrowing down the crash structure. The wing also has its outboard mountings positioned further forward, achieved by reducing the chord length here to leave a corner of the endplate exposed.

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This might seem like a standard development to improve how the aerodynamicists employ exposed edges to induce vorticity, but – and stick with me here – it underlines the infrastructural improvements Williams has been implementing back at base. One of the areas that Vowles was keen to improve upon his arrival was in the composites department, knowing that improving the processes and the machinery at Grove could not only allow the team to produce lighter parts, but also retain structural integrity with smaller pieces of the F1 car jigsaw puzzle. It might be more difficult to pass the FIA’s crash tests with a smaller, thinner nose, but if the engineers have the tools to be more efficient with composite lay-up, then this imbues greater strength in the process. Essentially, the team has more latitude to opt for a ‘riskier’ design.

Updating its composites department has provided Williams with the tools to improve its overall manufacturing

Updating its composites department has provided Williams with the tools to improve its overall manufacturing

Photo by: Autosport

Williams has retained the status quo with its front suspension and retained push-rod-activated rockers. This largely remains a matter of personal preference among the designers and aerodynamicists; evidently, Williams does not feel that it is worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Like last year’s car, Williams has been able to stack the push-rod’s upper mounting behind the first wishbone leg, essentially setting up the airflow with the front-most suspension fairing and laying it down with the curvature of the second.

This leads into the tub area which, on the FW46, had a noticeable trapezoidal front section – should anyone look at a photo of last year’s car, then they might notice where the bulkhead flares out below the Stephens logo. The new car no longer appears to have this on first viewing, again perhaps an indication of the team’s improvements with augmenting its chassis structurally. One distinct benefit of this is that it opens out the space underneath the inlet, one that appears to have been largely carried over – if not, simply influenced by – the RB20-style intakes that the team introduced in Zandvoort last year.

Here, the side impact crash structure is mounted high up, and airflow either split over the top to be channelled downwards or shoved through the heavy undercut around the edge of the floor. One can surmise that the channelling towards the rear end of the sidepods’ top face remains, giving clearer direction to the airflow being fired at the floor’s upper surface. This flows around a new engine cover, which appears to be more shapely compared to that of its FW46 forebear. The bulges and blisters previously evident here are less obvious, hinting at more effective packaging of the powertrain and ancillary internals that the aerodynamicists are especially keen to influence.

The team is hoping that the FW47 can cure the ills of last year’s car and bring about some kind of ascent up the order but, equally, it won’t lose too much sleep if it can’t manage to do so

The rear wing will be interchangeable through the year, although the FW47 was shown with a higher-downforce specification wing that displays a flatter mainplane and exposed tips on the upper element. Williams used variations of this design last year, but there are nonetheless a few iterative tweaks to the formula.

One of the bigger changes sits at the rear, as the team has shifted to a push-rod rear suspension layout. It has moved the front leg of the upper wishbone downwards to occupy some of the space left where the pull-rod used to enter the bodywork, spacing out the suspension members to clean up the airflow in this area. This is a change that many have opted for to move the springs and rockers away from the underside of the car, meaning that diffuser space is enlarged. There are knock-on changes to the overall load characteristics that the vehicle dynamicists must get their heads around, but ultimately it should yield a net aerodynamic gain. This is now in line with the team’s technical tie-up with Mercedes, where it used the previous year’s suspension package in 2024 to retain the pull-rod rear assembly.

Other areas, for example the visible parts of the floor, are in much the same condition as where the FW46 left off at Abu Dhabi last year. Williams may yet see fit to subject this to further development, although pumping further time and money that could be earmarked for 2026 may be viewed as a risk – especially given the hit-and-miss floor developments that its rival teams encountered over last season.

Williams has moved to a push-rod rear suspension

Williams has moved to a push-rod rear suspension

Photo by: Autosport

And 2026 hangs, like the Sword of Damocles, over Williams’ head. The new regulations are the team’s priority, and every decision it makes for 2025 will come with the added caveat of “how will this affect next year’s build?”. Of course, that’s the same for every team on the grid – but Vowles’ frequent assertions that this year is subject to being sacrificed for next year will mean that it won’t attain much of a development trajectory.

The team is hoping that the FW47 can cure the ills of last year’s car and bring about some kind of ascent up the order but, equally, it won’t lose too much sleep if it can’t manage to do so. Everything looks to be the result of the iterative improvements back at base, giving it more developmental latitude – so if anything, the car should indicate that the team is on the right track. How much it falls back over the year, assuming minimal development, will be intertwined with the approaches of the other outfits on the grid.

Can the FW47 make an instant impact for Williams or will it be a bridge to greater success as the team targets 2026?

Can the FW47 make an instant impact for Williams or will it be a bridge to greater success as the team targets 2026?

Photo by: Williams

In this article

Jake Boxall-Legge

Formula 1

Williams

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Formula 1

Watch LIVE – Williams unveils new 2025 F1 car

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The Williams Formula 1 team has taken the covers off its 2025 challenger, the FW47, at a launch event in Silverstone.

Following McLaren’s Silverstone launch of the MCL39 on Thursday, Williams also headed to the British Grand Prix venue to showcase its new car to the world while holding a filming day for drivers Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz.

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Like its papaya counterpart, the Williams livery shown in the Grove team’s livestream on an older car has received a temporary black and blue design ahead of F1’s joint season launch at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday, where all teams are expected to first unveil their definitive 2025 colour schemes.

The FW47, which was unveiled during the livestream before it hit the circuit, is the second car produced under team principal James Vowles’ helm as he aims to get the once-successful team back to the front in Formula 1.

Williams FW47

Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

“It’s obviously an evolution of last year’s car,” Vowles said ahead of the last F1 season before the 2026 overhaul of technical regulations.

“We’ve had a reasonable winter. It’s always difficult to know, though, because the field, as we finished the last race, I think we qualified within half a second of one another at Abu Dhabi. So the field’s closing in together, and what you don’t know is how good a winter others have had.

“What I can say is I’m proud of the work we have achieved across the winter. When you look at the car, you can see just 1,000 details that are just another evolution of where we were before. So there’s been literally no bolt left to where it was. We’re making sure we’re continuously moving the team forward. Let’s see where that falls out.”

Having shored up its commercial portfolio with the signing of software firm Atlassian as its first title sponsor in five years, the 2025 season is expected to be another transitional year as Williams aims to hit the ground running with the all-new technical regulations.

While the team continues to undergo structural changes at thew factory, Albon and Ferrari signing Sainz are aiming to improve upon the team’s lowly ninth position in the 2024 constructors’ championship.

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47

Photo by: Williams

Williams hasn’t achieved a podium finish on merit since the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix with Lance Stroll, as its only top-three result since then was George Russell’s in the one-lap 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

However, when it comes to reaching the podium this year, Vowles said: “Nothing’s impossible. We’re going to remember that a few surprises happened last year as well.

“At the same time, what I can say is this: we have a lot more of the ingredients available to us. I think on a normal race weekend, it’s going to be unlikely, but there are circumstances that will fall our way, and we have two of the strongest drivers that will give absolutely everything – as will I, as will the team.

In this article

Filip Cleeren

Formula 1

Carlos Sainz

Alex Albon

Williams

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Formula 1

Why the Red Bull-Honda bond was beyond saving after F1 2025

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From an inauspicious start in a Mercedes-dominated era, Red Bull’s partnership with Honda propelled both teams back to the front, with Max Verstappen following in Sebastian Vettel’s footsteps as a four-time world champion, amassing 63 wins by the end of 2024.

But it’s a success story that is coming to an end, with Red Bull taking matters into its own hands with Red Bull Powertrains-Ford, while Honda joins forces with Aston Martin for 2026’s new power unit regulations.

October 2020: Honda pulls out

Alex Albon, Red Bull Racing RB16

Alex Albon, Red Bull Racing RB16

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

The beginning of the end of the Red Bull-Honda partnership was 2 October 2020, the day Honda officially announced it would leave Formula 1 after the 2021 season. The company stated it was fully committed to electrification and feared the economic consequences of the global COVID-19 crisis. “Honda needs to funnel its corporate resources in research and development of future power unit and energy technologies,” a statement at the time read. An expensive F1 programme no longer fitted into that picture.

It was a shock to many in the F1 paddock, including Red Bull itself, which had to come up with a plan amid limited options. “I am a great believer in fate. It was during COVID that Honda decided to withdraw, so that left us with a choice”, team principal Horner said. “We wouldn’t get an engine from Mercedes and at Ferrari, we weren’t sure how many cylinders we would get! Renault, we had been there and done that, to go back again didn’t feel right. It felt like it almost forced our hand to say ‘okay, let’s make a decision’.”

One left-field option was to acquire Honda’s IP and build the current power unit until the end of the current rules cycle, but that proved too complicated to pull off for both sides. “Having explored that it became more and more complex, because that process is not just about building engines, it is way more than that with the supply chain and so on,” Horner said.

A more realistic path was a paid deal between Honda and Red Bull until the end of 2025. Honda would provide technical support, and all engines for both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls would still come from Japan. “We announced stopping our Formula 1 activities, but after discussions with Red Bull, they wanted us to continue the activities. That’s why we became a kind of technical support since then. In fact, we still operate everything on the power unit side”, Honda Racing Corporation chief Watanabe told Motorsport.com.

Horner added: “We are a customer to Honda. We pay for engines through a separate entity of Red Bull powertrains. It has been a great relationship, and they continue to provide an excellent service that we pay for, to provide engines for the four cars.”

November 2022: Honda decides on F1 U-turn, but Red Bull has already moved on

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Honda started entertaining second thoughts about its decision when the 2026 regulations started moving in the direction the Japanese giant was pursuing, featuring sustainable fuels and a larger percentage of hybrid power. “From Honda’s point of view, the new F1 regulations for 2026 with the combustion engine being fifty percent and the electrical parts being fifty percent are very attractive to both Honda and Honda Racing”, Watanabe explained. “The direction with the carbon-neutral fuel is very good for us as well, so that is basically why we decided to officially return to Formula 1.”

Honda’s first talks about 2026 were still with Red Bull, with advisor Helmut Marko visiting the manufacturer in Japan. “But when we withdrew from Formula 1, Red Bull decided to establish its own power unit company. That is why there was basically no room to work together”, Watanabe recalls from those meetings.

By the time Honda changed its mind, Red Bull had already invested millions into its own powertrains project, setting up a dedicated unit at its Milton Keynes campus. There was no turning back, as Verstappen points out: “A few years ago, they said ‘we’re going to stop’, so then Red Bull set up its own engine division. Unfortunately, once you’re already in the process of building a whole engine yourself, you can’t really work together anymore.”

An interesting detail, however, is that Honda and Red Bull did discuss one other option for 2026. “During our regular conversations we discussed the option of Red Bull doing the internal combustion engine themselves and us doing the electrical parts”, Watanabe revealed. “But that wouldn’t have been easy at all if they only made the ICE and we did the electrical parts, so in the end we found out that it was impossible to collaborate under these conditions.” 

It would have been a gamble to combine an internal combustion engine produced in the UK with electrical parts from Japan, including the complexity of working on two different sides of the world. Another risk was that neither side would have had full control over the end product. For example, if the combustion engine fell short, that would indirectly reflect on Honda, while the Japanese engineers had no control over it.

May 2023: Honda lands on Aston Martin deal as Red Bull gets help from Ford

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The result is that both brands will go their separate ways in 2026. Honda eventually did a deal to work with Lawrence Stroll’s hyper ambitious Aston Martin squad, although Watanabe reveals that multiple teams showed interest.

“In the first part of the process there were only conversations between Honda and Red Bull,” he recalled. “The discussions with other teams started after we officially registered ourselves with the FIA as a power unit supplier for 2026. That was in November 2022. Then some other teams contacted us, as they were interested in working with Honda. We talked to those parties and made a decision.”

Asked how many teams approached Honda, Watanabe responded: “I cannot give you the exact number, but several teams. With some of those we’ve only had contact once and some others we’ve met several times.”

Meanwhile, Red Bull Powertrains signed a technical partnership deal with Ford, with the OEM’s contribution described as its expertise on “battery cell and electric motor technology as well as power unit control software and analytics”, with the engines still being built and developed in Milton Keynes.

It is an immense task, although Horner thinks Red Bull’s first-ever in-house power unit programme offers opportunities as well. “From a future protection point of view, we didn’t want to be in a position where we were with Honda, where suddenly a change in management or head office making a decision that F1 doesn’t suit them anymore – and you haven’t got an engine,” he said.

“With this route we have way more control of our own destiny. The investment that we’ve made is for the long term, it’s not a short-term commitment. I think other than Ferrari, we’re the only team that has everything fully integrated for 2026 with the same ownership on one site. And for us that’s invaluable.”

Horner added: “I’ve got no illusions that there won’t be challenges in 2026. I mean, to hit the ground running with a competitive power unit against Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda – they’re all massive manufacturers with decades of experience. We’ve got three years of experience, but we’ve got a huge amount of passion. We’ve got some great people, we’ve got the facilities, we’ve got great partners, and we’ve got the attitude that served us so well in the 122 race wins that we’ve achieved so far. 

“It would be so rewarding when we add to that number with an engine that’s been designed, built and manufactured here in Milton Keynes.”

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Ronald Vording

Formula 1

Red Bull Racing

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Culture/Formula 1

Buried details in the “F1” Super Bowl trailer with Brad Pitt

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If you thought that hype for Formula 1 in America reached a fever pitch during the peak of Netflix’s smash hit “Drive to Survive,” you’ll be in for a shock come this summer. Brad Pitt’s hotly-anticipated flick, simply titled “F1,” hits the big screen in June, and Apple TV+ is throwing some serious budget behind the movie’s marketing rollout. Case in point: the film’s second teaser trailer aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday night, where a 30-second spot costs a whopping $8 million (on top of the $50 million a year Apple pays to sponsor the halftime show).   

The teaser trailer didn’t offer us a ton of clues about the plot — no more than we’ve gleaned having seen the film’s crew shooting at real Formula 1 races the last couple seasons. But in the absence of IMDB-worthy information, we’ve done our duty to break down this fresh 32 seconds of cinema fodder, looking for whatever info we can glean.

Here’s what we found.

First, the trailer

Watch: “F1” trailer #2, released during the Super Bowl

A quick plot refresher

“F1” follows Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a former F1 driver who makes a surprise return to the grid several years after suffering a terrible crash. He’s recruited by the owner of the fictional APXGP team, played by Javier Bardem, who pairs him with Damson Idris’ character, rookie driver Joshua Pearce. Together, the two must work to elevate the 11th F1 team towards the top of the grid. Not that they would have had advance notice of Cadillac’s imminent arrival in Formula 1, but it certainly feels like foreshadowing. Here’s everything we know about “F1” the film, if you want to know more.

The film arrives in cinemas this summer

The film arrives in cinemas this summer

Photo by: WarnerBros

Playing “Spot That Track”

The smash-cut heavy trailer is short on identifiable details, but an eagle eye can see they’ve crammed in video from lots of tracks. The first clip shows Pitt during a race start at Silverstone — specifically in 2023 when he and Idris filmed multiple scenes throughout the race weekend. That quickly cuts to Pitt accelerating through Eau Rouge at the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps (followed by him lying down, shirtless, in his trailer, because this is Brad Pitt). 

After a brief clip of Pitt and actress Kerry Condon, his love interest, looking out on the Las Vegas strip from a hotel balcony, the teaser heads to Abu Dhabi for the final race of the season. Pitt’s character collides with Esteban Ocon’s Alpine — though the next shot, a close-up of the front wing damage, appears to be taken from a scene at a separate track, possibly the Hungaroring.

After tensions flare in the APXGP garage (with Bardem’s holding back Pitt and Idris from fighting), a car goes up in flames on-track. Then it’s Pitt battling Max Verstappen into turn one at Monza, before the trailer cuts to Pitt flying into the gravel at Silverstone. Another smash cut shows an APXGP car flying into the catch fence in Las Vegas, where the crew were shooting into the early hours of the morning in 2024. 

The final images in the trailer feature fireworks at the Daytona International Speedway (in the movie, Pitt’s character raced in IMSA before returning to F1), most likely filmed during the Rolex 24 last January. Our closing shot sees Pitt on track in Las Vegas, featuring the teaser’s only line of dialogue: “Hayes attacks around the outside,” says a very David-Croft-sounding commentator. 

The biggest winners of “F1” so far

We’ve seen Pitt’s Sonny Hayes get crashed into, spin out, and nearly throw fists. But it’s the real-deal sponsors who’ve gotten some serious exposure during these trailers.

This latest teaser reached more than 100 million as it aired during the Super Bowl, and at publish time, has another four million views on YouTube. The fake Sonny Hayes’ very real sponsor companies — including watchmaker IWC, cruise line MSC, home and kitchenwares brand Shark/Ninja, and Expensify — all just received a Super Bowl ad with Brad Pitt. That might be worth as much as Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari suit. 

The questions we’ve got

While the clips of “F1” have done a great job building hype, plenty of question marks surrounding the film remain. What sort of role will the real drivers play in the film? How will the movie will tackle continuity (e.g., will Logan Sargeant be on the grid in “F1” since he drove for Williams when filming began? And about Daniel Ricciardo, too, since he came and went from the grid twice throughout production?)

 

In this article

Emily Selleck

Formula 1

Culture

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Formula 1

Villeneuve joins Button, Chadwick as Williams F1 ambassador

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Williams has signed 1997 Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve as an ambassador for the 2025 season.

Villeneuve, who remains the most recent driver to win a title for Williams, will join Jenson Button and Jamie Chadwick in helping “strengthen the connection between the team’s celebrated history and its ambitious future”.

The British team didn’t provide any details about Villeneuve’s role as an ambassador, but it is likely to include several public appearances at events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

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Villeneuve made his much-anticipated F1 debut with Williams in 1996 as the reigning IndyCar champion and won the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in just his fourth weekend in the series.

He led Williams to a dominant title double in his sophomore campaign in 1997, winning seven of the 17 races in the Renault-powered FW19.

He remained at Williams the following year, before departing the squad in 1999 in favour of a move to British American Racing (BAR). However, he would never achieve the same success after leaving Williams, and retired from the series after 2006 following a two-year stint at Sauber/BMW in 2005-06.

“Williams has been a crucial part of my life, filled with fond memories,” said the Canadian, now 53. “I am ecstatic to be part of the family again, and to help celebrate the team’s heritage while supporting its future.”

Jenson Button, Williams FW14B

Jenson Button, Williams FW14B

Photo by: Williams

Williams also announced that it had retained both 2009 F1 champion Button and three-time W Series title winner Chadwick as driver ambassadors.

Like Villeneuve, Button made his F1 debut with Williams, in 2000, and this year marks the 25th anniversary of that landmark moment. He rejoined Williams in 2021 as a senior advisor, five years after retiring from F1 as a driver.

Chadwick, meanwhile, first joined Williams as a development driver in 2019 and got her first opportunity to test an F1 car two years ago, when she drove Keke Rosberg’s FW08C at Goodwood.

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In this article

Rachit Thukral

Formula 1

Jenson Button

Jacques Villeneuve

Jamie Chadwick

Williams

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