James Vowles tempers expectations over Williams’ 2026 title chances
- Henry Eccles
- Jan 12
- 3 min read
Despite beginning development on their 2026 challenger earlier than most on the F1 grid, Williams’ Team Principal James Vowles has cooled expectations that the Grove-based outfit will compete for titles in the upcoming season.
For the 12th consecutive campaign, Williams will be powered by Mercedes engines in 2026, with the German manufacturer widely tipped to be the favourites under new regulations. However, Vowles believes there is still significant work to be done before Williams can compete with his former team.
Vowles will be more aware than most of Mercedes’ potential to get things right under new rules. The Briton was Chief Strategist at Brawn GP during their historic championship victory in 2009, before continuing with the team as it became Mercedes and dominated the turbo-hybrid era.
Since leaving the Silver Arrows to join Williams in 2023, Vowles’ mission has been to bring the Grove team back to their former glory. In 2025, despite prioritising development for 2026, Williams secured their best Constructors’ finish since 2016 (P5) – scoring two podiums in Azerbaijan and Qatar and improving on 2024’s P9 result.
Where Williams may fall short in 2026
James Vowles and Toto Wolff at the 2024 Dutch GP - Getty Images
While Vowles has faith Mercedes’ engines will deliver in 2026, he has stressed that Williams simply lack the infrastructure needed to fight at the front with their power unit suppliers.
Speaking to the media, he said: “100 per cent, if Brackley is very good at one thing, it’s regulation change. I think that’s clear. And Mercedes are very good at it as well.
“I’ve done everything we have to do to keep growing this team to be at a championship level in the future, but we do not have the facilities or the capability of Mercedes. It’s as simple as that today.”
Adding context to those comments, Vowles explained that his former employers have been able to spend more time getting a complete understanding of the 2026 regulations, while his current team have had the additional task of improving their F1 operations as a whole.
“So whilst they’ve been preparing pretty much just by ironing out the regulations and getting it right, what I’ve been doing is more laying more of a groundwork on top of trying to focus some time on the 2026 car.”
The result, Vowles believes, is that Williams will not be fighting for world championships this year, aiming instead to gradually build on their impressive 2025 progress and grow into a title-contending team in the seasons to follow.
“I’m okay with that,” he said.
“My goal is to move this team forward step on step each year. And I think we have the capability.”
Vowles explains Williams’ “zero cost” improvements in 2025
Carlos Sainz celebrates Baku podium with the Williams team - Getty Images
Despite becoming the first team to switch off 2025 wind tunnel development in April to fully focus on 2026, Williams held onto their P5 place in the Constructors’, with Carlos Sainz even scoring two podiums later on in the year in Baku and Lusail.
While many would have expected a Williams dip in form, Vowles argued that the lack of aero development represented an opportunity to improve in other areas.
In a separate interview with Autosport building up to the 2026 season, Vowles explained: “We've only put a couple of weeks of aerodynamic development into the 2025 car during the year.
“But what we've been working on instead is: 'Do we have the right balance? Do we have the right way of working the tyres? Do we have the right way of communicating with the drivers? Do we have the right differential tools?' All those are zero cost. They're just about using a product in a different way to what we had before.
"Quite a bit of performance that was locked away has been coming out of that, and that's what I've been focused on.
"It's what I like about our sport. You constrain yourself in one way by not putting any more development in this car, but I give you the freedom every weekend to go out there and try something different.
“As long as it is backed up by logic and has a data-driven mechanism behind it, then I'm fine to support it and try it. And that's what we've been doing, and it's working. You could see across the year how, despite the car not changing, we were moving forward."
Comments