Williams now ‘unhappy’ with Mercedes over lack of information about their new power unit

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Williams have started the 2026 Formula 1 season without scoring a point, but are not happy with the information they’ve received from Mercedes thus far about their power unit.

Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz finished P12 and P15 at the Australian Grand Prix following a tricky start to the campaign.

Sainz didn’t even take part in qualifying due to a technical issue, and Albon could only qualify 15th, and both drivers never looked in contention to score points despite the retirements from other teams.

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Sainz claimed points were never on the table for Williams, which, considering he was on the podium at the penultimate race of 2025, is a serious issue.

It’s believed that James Vowles might already be under pressure from Williams investors, but the finger is now being pointed at Mercedes and their new power unit.

READ MORE: All to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes ties

Williams ‘unhappy’ about how much information Mercedes have given them about their new power unit

Journalist Scott Mitchel-Malm was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast about a poor showing from the Williams team in Australia.

He explained: “Yeah, if you just want a word on Williams, it’s ‘rubbish’. It’s just nowhere near where it should be.

“The car’s slow, it’s bad in qualifying, it’s uncompetitive in the race, it’s clearly overweight.

“They’re unhappy about what they’re getting from Mercedes in terms of openness on the engine side. But I don’t think they should be going anywhere near that topic at the moment.

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“You can’t be the fourth of the four Mercedes teams and be complaining that you’re not getting exactly what you need out of that.

“Focus on the problems closer to home first, especially after all the noise about how important 2026 was. I don’t really even care that there’s massive potential in this, that there could be big gains if they just get the weight out over the first few races. Just go and do it.

“The promise or the potential of the package, where they get to by the end of the year, might genuinely be really good. Like, so much can change over this year.

“It’s entirely possible Williams ends the year as the lead midfield team and with the best car in the midfield. And if they do that, they’ve done a great job.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that they’ve messed up by being in the position that they’re in now.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage

McLaren add to Williams’ comments on not having enough information on Mercedes’ power unit

There is a distinct gap between Mercedes and their three customer teams on the grid right now, with McLaren scoring 10 points and Alpine sneaking into the top 10 thanks to Pierre Gasly.

Obviously, the power unit is important, but it doesn’t guarantee any level of success; however, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has shared similar feelings to James Vowles about Mercedes’ recent conduct.

Before the race weekend even started, Vowles told the assembled media: “What Mercedes are doing on the power unit is something that caught us off guard.

“It took a qualifying for us to really see just how off the pace we are. In that regard, that’s probably three tenths [of deficit on the engine side] – something in that ballpark.”

After the race, Stella echoed the feeling coming from Williams, and said, via Sky Sports: “The discussion with HPP (Mercedes High Performance Powertrains) about having more information has been going on for weeks because, even in testing, we were pretty much going on track, run the car, look at the data, ‘oh, that’s what we have. Good, now we react to what we have’.

“That’s not how you work in Formula 1. In Formula 1, what happens on track, you simulate. You know what is happening, you know what you are programming, you know how the car is going to behave.

“So, I have to say, since we are a customer team [of Mercedes], this is the first time that we feel we are on the back foot even when it comes to the ability to predict how the car will behave and the ability to anticipate how we can improve the car.”