Following a challenging 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, Williams’ Team Principal James Vowles shared during his post-race Vowles Verdict rundown how the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya exposed the FW48’s major flaws. The Briton then outlined how Williams will be tackling these performance issues as the season progresses, but added that there was no immediate fix.
At the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, Carlos Sainz, who placed himself P16 on the starting grid, finished P12 and was lapped twice by the leading cars. On the other side of the garage, Alex Albon, who only qualified P18, had his race compromised by a loose camera mounting, which resulted in a long stop in the pits. Williams instead had the 30-year-old return to the track for a test session. The Thai-British driver’s position was not officially classified, and he finished 11 laps behind.
Ahead of the 2026 F1 Austrian GP, Williams currently sits in P8 of the Constructors’ Championship with 11 points to its name. Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon sit at P14 and P15 respectively in the Drivers’ Championship.
Vowles shares insight on Williams poor performance at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP
According to Vowles, Williams had a bad track record at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya; the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP was no exception.
The Grove outfit has struggled for more than a decade to design a package that could take on this type of track. The majority of Williams’ chassis tend to favour low-drag and straight-line speed instead.
Vowles noted that the last time Williams delivered in Barcelona was at the 2012 F1 Spanish GP. Former driver Pastor Maldonado had taken the chequered flag in P1. However, Vowles reflected that Williams’ strong performance during that year was also circumstantial.
“This isn’t the first year. We’ve had this for many, many years across our history of Williams. Probably the last race I remember where we were very strong was back in 2012. But I actually think some of the characteristics may have helped back then in those conditions. So there were some elements that are just baked into ways of working, ways of reviewing and thinking about the car as a complete concept. And a lot of that, I think, is directionally wrong for Barcelona.”
Williams’ pre-season disadvantage
Vowles also spoke on how Williams started on the back foot prior to the start of the 2026 F1 season. At the beginning of the year, Williams had missed the Barcelona shakedown due to delays in the development of the FW48. The Grove outfit also started the 2026 F1 season with a performance deficit due to an overweight FW48.
Vowles acknowledged that the team’s challenging start to the 2026 F1 season had a significant impact on their current performance, but added that it was not the main factor. However, he did admit that the FW48 lacked the predictability and balance that the drivers need to extract pace from the car.
“Now, we’ve definitely accentuated it this year by some of the winter that’s been difficult, but left this car in not the ideal circumstance in terms of specification. So that’s just a fact that we have to remove. I think that’s an element that made it even worse again, but isn’t really the underlying fault underneath it.”
“The best I can say is this. What you need is a balance that, as you go through the corner, so from braking to entry to apex to exit to power limited, it’s a predictable sequence for the drivers.”
Vowles remains positive that Williams can make a comeback during the 2026 F1 season
The 47-year-old further explained that Williams was vulnerable at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya due to the circuit’s layout and high track temperature. Regardless, Vowles remained optimistic and shared that there was still time for Williams to upgrade their car and optimise the remainder of the 2026 F1 season.
“And what Barcelona does is it exposes when you have a weakness in any one of those areas. And I think we have a few of them. Now, the good thing is this weekend, very specifically today, we’ve highlighted three or four areas that we weren’t looking at before that are rectifiable, that we need to spend some time on.”
He also took the time to highlight the recent signings they’ve added to the squad. Vowles shared that Williams will be using the following racing weekends of the 2026 F1 season to experiment with the car.
“Around us now is a core team of individuals with experience both from Williams but from many other organisations as well. We’ve been adding really championship-level individuals to the frame. And that’s given us the horsepower and the strength that once we get that data out of the weekend, to have a very different way of approaching it and a thought process involved in it.
“What we need now is future events to test some of those theories. There’s no testing anymore. We’re going to have to do that during the course of race weekends. But some concepts and direction, the first of those which will be in Silverstone, which we’ll be trying.”
