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Williams team principal James Vowles has made it clear that the 2026 Formula 1 season has been the team’s main priority for some time now.
Despite Williams writing off the development of their 2025 car, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon still managed to lift the team into fifth place in the constructors’ championship.
Sainz even managed to secure two podiums and a third-place finish in the Sprint Race in Austin, although a slow start to the campaign meant he still finished nine points behind Albon.
Finish the sentence: In 2026, Carlos Sainz will finish ____ in the championship with Williams
James Vowles has made some big promises ahead of 2026, as when he took over the team following his Mercedes exit, he recognised that his best opportunity to achieve success was to immediately shift focus to next year’s regulation changes.
Sainz chose Williams over Audi due to his conversations with Vowles, and when testing begins at the end of January, fans will be able to quickly see whether he made the right decision.
The post-season test after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix also gave people a first glimpse of Williams’ mule car ahead of 2026, and journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was particularly excited about one change the team have already made to their car.
READ MORE: All to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes ties
Williams remove wheel covers ahead of 2026 Formula 1 rule changes
Mitchell-Malm was speaking about the changes he spotted during the post-season test on The Race F1 Podcast.
He said: “So, I heard at the start that one team might be running with basically an experimental version of their 2026 wheels, because so far, in the current era, the wheel rim became a standard supplied part.
“In the mule car testing, they’ve been using a standard part, but like a hybrid ahead of next year’s change.
“But the teams were allowed, if they wanted to here, to bring some of their own wheel rims, that they might use next year and run a limited number of laps on them.
“I’d heard that one team in particular would be doing that. I looked through so many photos to see if I could just spot a visibly different wheel rim.
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“And I thought, I can’t see anything. Maybe it’s more subtle than this with the hub or the cover or anything like that.
“And then it turned out it was Williams. The pictures dropped, and it was just so nice seeing an F1 car without the wheel covers, which are being dropped for weight reasons.
“They just look so proper and racy. So I don’t know if that’s something that people will notice when the real things run properly in January, and then obviously the real test in Bahrain.
“But I quite liked it. It was mildly jarring because we’ve got so used to seeing these cars with the covers on.”
READ MORE: Carlos Sainz showed his class with his response to beating Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 podium tally
Guenther Steiner makes Carlos Sainz prediction if Williams fail with 2026 rule changes
As soon as they were able to, Williams switched focus from this year’s car to 2026, but it’s still too early to know whether that has paid off.
Williams will benefit from their continued partnership with Mercedes and using their power units, which are expected to be very strong compared to their rivals.
That means it might come down to a battle of the Mercedes-powered teams, with McLaren hoping to continue their current reign of dominance and Alpine desperate not to finish last once again.
Guenther Steiner has predicted Sainz might leave Williams at the end of next year if the team aren’t competitive enough.
He’s already switched manufacturers four times in his F1 career, and after being ousted by Ferrari to make way for Lewis Hamilton, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he did so again in his pursuit of adding to his four Grand Prix victories.
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