Williams team principal James Vowles has warned that the 2025 Formula 1 season will prove tricky for the British outfit as it focuses on the new regulations for the following year.
F1 cars will be overhauled from 2026 onwards, with smaller dimensions, reduced weight, simplified aerodynamics and toned-down downforce and drag.
Having failed to finish a race in the top five since 2017 - other than the controversial 2021 Belgian Grand Prix - as it struggled financially under the Williams family, the Grove-based team has been getting the budget it needs from new owners Dorilton Capital and catching up with rival squads in terms of both performance and infrastructure.
2026 will therefore be a major opportunity for Williams to leap up the pecking order with drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, and the team is ready to sacrifice the upcoming campaign to do so.
“It’s the message that Alex and Carlos both know: 2025 will be a struggle, I think,” Vowles told Autosport.
“It’s not that you’re going to see us moving forward, we’re going to move back a little bit.
“And if we are, I’m okay with that, because it simply says that I’m investing at the right rate for ‘26 compared to those around me. That’s what we should be expecting from it: we are going to compromise ’25. That doesn’t mean we’ll be tenth, but it’s going to be a hard year.”
Following a 2023 season in which Williams narrowly beat AlphaTauri [now RB] for seventh position - with 28 points to 25 in the constructors’ championship - the team struggled early this year with just four points before the summer break.
However, its campaign really took off in Monza and Baku – with Albon and team-mate Franco Colapinto both finishing in the top eight in Azerbaijan – which is down to the ponderous FW46 finally losing crucial weight.
“I think we were fortunate to finish seventh last year,” Vowles added. “RB was bloody quick at the end of the year, and it was really just a matter of one strategic call, almost, that defined who finished ahead in the championship. We still finished seventh.
“This year’s car was performing. I think I was quite open in how overweight we were. Just take that time off and you’ll see that we shouldn’t be where we are in the championship. Now that we’ve had the performance, taking the weight off the car, we’re back to where I would have expected us to be – which is therefore not a step backwards.”
Vowles now advocates for a trial-and-error approach in the next 12 months as he considers this to be the best way to learn amidst the 2026 technical revolution.
“We are trying to do leaps – not steps forward, not inching forward, not minimal gains, or marginal gains even, but leaps in the technology and what we’re doing,” the Briton explained. “And in doing so, we’re going to trip ourselves up. And I’m comfortable with that, because we can’t unlearn what we’ve learned.
“I give you almost a guarantee: unfortunately, we’re going to trip ourselves again. I don’t think it’d be in ‘25, for what it’s worth. I think we’ve got enough of a good pathway to lead us there. I think in ’26, what we’re asking of the organisation is more than we can deliver. So we’ve got to make it fit or perhaps trip up a little bit along the way.”
