Claire Williams reflects on Williams’ 2026 F1 testing setbacks amid FW48 build issues

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Williams have not had the start to the 2026 Formula 1 season that they would have been hoping for after encountering several development issues.

The Grove outfit have been focusing tirelessly behind the scenes on the new technical regulations. They were one of the first teams to prioritise 2026 over last year’s car, hoping to get a head start over their rivals.

After finishing P5 in the standings in 2025, Williams were expected to be even stronger in 2026, helped by the fact that Mercedes are set to have the fastest engine on the grid. However, pre-season testing has not painted a positive picture for James Vowles’ team.

Williams missed the Barcelona shakedown at the end of January after failing FIA crash tests. This has immediately put Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz on the back foot as they have had significantly less mileage than the rest of the grid.

Thankfully, the team have made it to Bahrain for the next pre-season test ahead of the season. Vowles’ ‘priority’ for Williams is to correlate their data, but they have a huge mountain to climb after the setbacks with the FW48.

Claire Williams admits Williams’ 2026 testing setbacks ‘is a worry’

Former Williams boss Claire Williams discussed the Grove outfit’s issues on Business of Sport, and she admitted that the problems they have faced so far in 2026 are worrying, especially with the amount of resources that have put into the car.

“You asked me the question earlier about McLaren and will Zak be rueing these new regulations,” she said. “The same question is probably applicable to Williams. They have worked so hard to bring themselves up and they were doing so well last year.

“I mean they finished fifth in the championship, that’s no mean feat and they had a lovely couple of podiums and they probably thought: ‘Well, hey, we’re getting somewhere here’.

“And now they’ve started this season and they can’t get the car to testing and for me, yeah, that is a worry, because I don’t want them to be in that position.

“That team is a great team and I know how hard it is. It is so brutal, it’s so hard and blood, sweat and tears will still have gone into that 2026 program, that 2026 car.

“And now off the back of P5, they would have wanted to springboard to fighting for P4 and continue that journey and is this now going to put them back to where they don’t want to be again? And that’s really sad.”

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Williams still have major issues to fix ahead of the 2026 season

Team boss Vowles and drivers Albon and Sainz will be pushing to develop the FW48 and get back on track ahead of the season. But Williams still have some issues to address.

Williams already need a new chassis for the FW48 as the car is ‘grossly overweight’. Several other teams have struggled with the weight of their machines with the new regulations, but the Grove outfit are facing a bill of £500k to solve the problem.

In Bahrain, Williams cannot get near Red Bull’s energy deployment at turn one after what Vowles saw from Max Verstappen. He admits that the team are not ‘championship level’, but it is clear that they are far from being competitive at this stage.

It is a worrying situation for Vowles and his team. They still have time to regroup and address the issues with the car, but they might not be as strong in 2026 as some people hoped they would be.