James Vowles confirms Williams’ ‘biggest missing piece’ after skipping 2026 Barcelona shakedown test

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James Vowles can see the “priority” issue that Williams must resolve in Bahrain after having to miss the Barcelona shakedown test following delays with their 2026 F1 car.

Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz are at an early disadvantage against their 20 rival drivers for the start of the 2026 F1 regulations era. Williams had to miss the entirety of F1’s five-day visit to Barcelona last week, while their 10 rival teams enjoyed up to three days of on-track running.

Williams confirmed that “delays” in their FW48 programme ensured it would not be sensible for them to test in Barcelona. Team principal Vowles clarified that Williams could have made the opening pre-season test of 2026, but doing so could have left them short on spare parts.

It is said that missing the Barcelona shakedown proved expensive for Williams, as the Grove crew had to manufacture a number of new parts at the last minute to finally build their new car. Williams are believed to have only realised the full extent of their delays at a late stage.

James Vowles’ ‘priority’ for the Bahrain test is for Williams to correlate their 2026 F1 car data

Williams conducted a number of virtual tests with their 2026 regulations car at their factory while their rivals were track-testing their packages in Barcelona. Mercedes also drip-fed data regarding their engine from the Barcelona shakedown test to power unit customer Williams.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about F1’s 2026 engine and aero regulations

Vowles is now keen for Williams to put the FW48 on track in Bahrain at the first official 2026 pre-season tests on February 11-13 and 18-20. It is vital that Albon and Sainz are able to run in the desert, as the “priority” for Williams will be to correlate their virtual and real-life data.

He said, via The Race: “Top of the priority list, for me, is we have not got a characterisation of our aerodynamic package or our vehicle dynamics package for suspension.

“You can do everything in a rig world, in a simulation world, but you need to have it properly characterised and correlated, in order to be able to ensure that you have not taken a wrong turn somewhere. That’s the biggest missing piece.”

Mercedes drip-fed Williams data about their 2026 engine from the Barcelona shakedown

Barcelona shakedown complete ✅ Which team has surprised you the most? 👇

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Mercedes recorded the most laps by any team at the Barcelona shakedown test, where the Silver Arrows’ engine customers Alpine and McLaren also enjoyed largely positive runs. The data that Mercedes offered Williams from Barcelona should help them to learn the engine.

F1 has overhauled the regulations with the power unit at the heart of the changes in 2026, with Formula 1 removing the expensive MGU-H and moving to advanced sustainable fuels. The biggest change is the increase in electrical power from the 20/80 split to almost 50/50.

But Mercedes’ data will not remove the hurdle that Albon and Sainz face compared to their rival drivers when it comes to the Williams pair learning how to manage their power supply on a live circuit. Judging when to deploy and harvest the energy each lap will be a vital task.