Williams could feel the squeeze from the budget cap
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was in attendance at the SF-26’s launch in Fiorano. The Italian outfit went through the first laps of their 2026 challenger without any problems, and are preparing for next week’s running in Spain.
As previously reported on LWOS, Ferrari are bringing two different specifications of the SF-26 for Barcelona testing. This will allow for some comparative tests, which swill inform the Scuderia’s development further ahead of the first race in Australia.
A few weeks before yesterday’s Fiorano shakedown, Vasseur spoke about one of the pitfalls that teams could fall victim to in 2026.
The Frenchman explained that some teams might be tempted to develop very aggressively at the beginning of the year. However, this could be a mistake – since the budget cap will limit how many upgrades can be introduced.
Because of this, the more sensible approach could be to have a bit of patience to start the season – collecting more data and getting a clearer understanding of these new cars before rushing to bring upgrades that might not work as intended.
The budget cap is relevant for Williams because, as it stands, they are already wasting valuable resources.
For Williams to miss completely on Barcelona testing suggests a significant problem. A minor problem or delay could have meant they perhaps missed the first few days of running. Still, it would have been possible to at least participate on the final few days.
Unfortunately for Williams, their predicament seems anything but minor – with a massive overhaul needed to get the FW48 in compliance with the regulations and capable of passing the FIA crash tests.
