Williams’ 2026 F1 car features one part that was ‘prohibited’ by the FIA last year

Follow us on Google Discover

Williams finally completed their first laps with their 2026 Formula 1 car on Wednesday. They carried out what was effectively a shakedown at the Silverstone circuit.

Williams took the decision to miss the Barcelona test after acknowledging production delays. It has been widely reported that they had trouble passing the necessary FIA crash tests.

But the Grove outfit shared a render of their 2026 livery on Tuesday and the real car rolled out of the garage just over 24 hours later, with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz both getting time behind the wheel.

Williams are expected to use their second allocated ‘filming day’ (up to 200km) just before the Bahrain test next week.

Williams spotted using front wing strakes that used to be banned

Clearly, it’s in Williams’ interests not to publish detailed images of their car. They only shared one shot of the FW48 on track at Silverstone, sporting its special fan-voted winter livery.

The low light makes it difficult to pick out many details, but the ‘strakes’ at either end of the front wing are immediately obvious. The renders showed the lower strake curving upwards, but they appear to curve downwards on the real car.

As noted by Motorsport Italia, this part, which helps to manage airflow, was ‘prohibited’ by the FIA under the previous regulations, when the endplate was the outermost extremity of a wider front wing.

Williams’ last major F1 milestones – Can the Grove-based squad achieve any of these again in 2026? ⬇️

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Williams have attached an additional, smaller strake to the top of the endplate. Red Bull and Ferrari are only running one at the bottom.

Williams’ wing bears the closest resemblance to McLaren, although this is a pure coincidence because the teams haven’t had enough time to copy one another yet.

What Carlos Sainz said after driving the 2026 Williams for the first time

Vowles admits that Sainz was ‘frustrated’ when he was informed about the team’s absence from the Barcelona Shakedown.

While rivals were on track last week, Sainz was still getting his seat fitted at the Williams factory, which left fans alarmed.

But the team have got up and running in time to feature in both Bahrain tests. They should log enough mileage from here to be competitive at the season opener in Australia.

Wednesday’s outing was more about ensuring basic functionality than gathering data.

“It’s always an exciting, special day for the drivers, the mechanics and the entire team and it’s been a great effort from everyone to get the car on track today,” Sainz told Williams’ official website.

“It was a typical winter day at Silverstone, so we focused on getting in our first few laps and completing our shakedown plan. We are ready to fly to Bahrain in a few days where we’ll dive into more complete run plans, so I’m looking forward to it!”