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Jolyon Palmer believes the changes that Williams need to make to their overweight 2026 Formula 1 car are going to be very ‘expensive’ for the team.
After barely developing their car last year in preparation for the 2026 F1 season, Williams appear to already be on the back foot compared to their rivals.
James Vowles’ team failed to turn up to the Barcelona shakedown, and while they managed to complete plenty of laps in Bahrain, they don’t appear to have bridged the gap to the top four manufacturers.
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Carlos Sainz remains optimistic about Williams’ chances, but it’s difficult to see the team being immediately competitive at the Australian Grand Prix.
Sainz’s teammate Alex Albon could only set the 18th fastest time during the second week of testing, and while that’s unlikely to be representative of their competitiveness once they reach Melbourne, only newcomers Cadillac and a crisis-riddled Aston Martin were behind him.
Jolyon Palmer has been left disappointed by Williams’ progress and believes that they’ve got some ‘expensive’ changes to make to try and strip weight off the FW48.
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Jolyon Palmer tells Williams fixing their overweight 2026 F1 car will be ‘expensive’
Palmer was speaking about Williams on the F1 Nation Podcast, and he explained: “I think they are pretty far back. They’re one of the disappointments for me this season because they had such a good end to last year.
“The podiums, fifth in the constructors, both drivers firing at various points of the year. And I still think their driver line-up is really strong. But it just doesn’t seem like they’re hitting the ground running.
“They missed Barcelona. To get out, they’ve then had to have workarounds to get the car on the circuit. The headline thing about Williams is that they have the heaviest car on the grid, by all accounts.
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“And I’ve heard numbers that are just extraordinary about how heavy that car is. Speaking to people around, they say if you can drop the weight out of this car, we will be competitive.
“But there is so much that they need to get rid of. The good news is that it’s an easy development area in time, but it is expensive.
“They have to literally manufacture so many new parts. No one’s intending to start the season so heavy.
“Nonetheless, I would say if I could be chasing, trying to get the weight down or chasing adding downforce, getting the weight down might be an easier fix in terms of technically, than trying to correlate your wind tunnel, your CFD and put some bits on the car to get your car working with more downforce.”
READ MORE: Who is James Vowles? All you need to know about Williams’ team principal
Carlos Sainz admits Williams had a ‘complicated winter’ heading into the 2026 F1 season
Williams beat the likes of Sauber, now Audi, and Alpine to the signing of Sainz when he was dropped by Ferrari to make way for Lewis Hamilton.
The Spanish driver spoke about Vowles’ vision and the ambition of Williams as one of the main reasons why he chose them over their midfield rivals.
However, Sainz has since admitted Williams had a ‘complicated winter’ and this has once again left them trying to make up ground on the teams they should be competing against.
Vowles has since admitted that Williams tried to take on too much in the build-up to 2026, and given they might have the best power unit on the grid this year, then it would be a huge missed opportunity if they don’t break into the top echelon of the sport.
More worryingly, based on testing alone, Alpine might have leapfrogged them over the winter despite having far less experience with the Mercedes power unit.
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