Securing 5th place in this year’s Championship was a welcome success for Williams, especially in the context of their financial difficulties over the past decade.
Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz led the team to their best F1 campaign since 2016, with two podium finishes from Sainz representing major highlights.
Ironically though, Williams team principal James Vowles downplayed expectations before the season began. Since the very beginning of the year, his priority – and that of his personnel – has been on the 2026 regulations.
After an impressive season of exceeding their own internal objectives, Williams are hungry to take the next step in 2026.
Williams focused on 2026 package before anyone else
It goes without saying that hitting the ground running in 2026 is a priority for every team. Red Bull in 2022 and Mercedes in 2014 demonstrate the importance of establishing an early advantage for a new generation of cars.
However, many teams (particularly title contenders Red Bull and McLaren) still expended some of their resources into this year’s car. It was only once the summer break began that 2026 became the exclusive focus for teams across the field.
For Williams, prioritising 2026 happened a long time ago.
In fact, Williams abandoned last year’s car early so they could finish developing this season’s FW47 in the second half of 2024.
For James Vowles, the objective was clear. Finish 2025 development early would allow his team to immediately focus on the 2026 regulations starting from January 1st. This is exactly what happened.
On the first day of the year (when teams were allowed to run their 2026 cars in the wind tunnel) Williams wasted no time in putting next season’s car through its first simulations.
Because of this relentless pursuit of optimising the new regulations, the Grove-based team did not expect an especially competitive 2025 campaign. This is something they warned Carlos Sainz of before he agreed to join the team.
This is why their results over the last twelve months were unexpected. Any potential upgrades this year were sacrificed for the sake of next season.
As James Vowles previously explained, investing in 2026 early could give Williams an advantage over other top teams:
“I’ve been very clear from the beginning that 2026 is the year I want to make sure we put focus onto.
“And that will have an effect on 2025, a sacrifice in some elements…
“I’m confident you’ll see a fight in front of the championship [this year]. And they’ll be in a bind as to whether to invest in 2025 or 2026.
“For me, my head is clear. It’s about the future of this organisation. So, the result of that is – let’s get some boots on the ground early, two experienced drivers, and pick up what we can.”
Exceeding targets once again
To some extent, the bar has been raised prematurely at Williams. With very few upgrades brought to this year’s FW47, the team were anticipating they would fall down the pecking order.
However, with other midfield teams encountering development struggles, Williams maintained their advantage from the beginning of the season. Only VCARB could be mentioned as potential challengers for the ‘best of the rest’ in 2025.
This means that finishing in the top 4 next season is the only way for Williams to improve upon this year.
Given the British squad is still early in their project, eclipsing one of the established top teams could be tricky. At the same time, James Vowles is not one to back away from a challenge.
With over 1,000 personnel, James Vowles has a workforce similar in size to the likes of McLaren or Mercedes. In combination with investments into new state-of-the-art infrastructure, the factory in Grove is more sophisticated than ever.
Assuming Mercedes produce a competitive engine in 2026, Williams have all the ingredients to build on this year’s momentum and give the front-runners some headaches.
READ MORE: Audi pleased with progress on 2026 engine
Main photo: Williams Media Gallery
