Williams Formula 1 team boss James Vowles says the jump from fifth to fourth will be "exponentially more difficult" as he rules out the squad fighting at the front in 2026.
Williams vaulted from ninth to fifth in 2025 with a much-improved car in the midst of a wide-ranging overhaul of its factory, while still concentrating almost all of its in-season development efforts on the 2026 project. Alex Albon and new signing Carlos Sainz combined for 137 points, up from 17 a year prior.
That early development focus on this year's regulations has raised expectations around the Grove-based outfit, despite the team missing the Barcelona shakedown, which it put down to trying to push more parts through its production process than it could handle at this stage.
Speaking to reporters, including Motorsport.com, at the launch of the team's new livery for 2026, Vowles says he is under no illusion that bridging the gap to the front runners from its 2025 status as 'best of the rest' will be much more difficult to achieve than moving from the back to the middle of the pack.
"This is a chance for us to really keep moving forward as an organisation," Vowles said. "We're not naive about the challenge ahead of us, and that the jump from fifth to fourth is, in my experience, exponentially more difficult than what we've already achieved. And the only way to achieve that against competitors themselves are striving and moving forward is simply by pushing the absolute boundaries and being brave in the decisions you're making.
"We don't expect to be fighting for the championship, but we do expect 2025 is our established baseline and to keep moving the business forward year on year from then onwards."
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Vowles stressed that because Bahrain still offers teams six more days of testing before the season opener in Australia, he doesn't believe sitting out the Barcelona shakedown will put it on the back foot.
"I would much prefer to have been in Barcelona. That was the goal. That was what we were intending to do. We did not achieve it," he said. "However, what we did in terms of a week's worth of virtual track testing was successful, and what we've been doing with both Carlos and Alex on the driver-in-loop simulator in tandem while everyone else was in Barcelona.
"In addition, we are fortunate that Mercedes has sufficient runners, that there's quite a bit of information coming back on both the gearbox and the power unit that enables us to get ahead when we come to Bahrain. That means that I do not believe with six days of testing we'll be on the back foot. Now a little bit of that's fortune because the power unit is reliable, the gearbox is reliable and the VTT testing flushed out a lot of the demons that are buried in the car.
"What's missing is there's a lot of knowledge for the drivers to inherently perfect what's going on on track. What's missing is a correlation for where our aerodynamics really are and a correlation for where our vehicle dynamics really are. Track data is the only way of establishing that.
"So, there is a loss but with six days of testing, but with our driver-in-loop simulator that we invested in – state-of-the-art and up and running in the last year – we are able to mitigate a lot of those."
Photos from Williams launch
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
Williams launch, in photos
