Williams make 'three times' point as costly F1 delay explained

Williams boss James Vowles has explained how the added complication of the new F1 cars was a factor in the delay of the FW48.

After initially failing the FIA crash tests and then concerns with the weight of the new car, Williams skipped the Barcelona shakedown and is the only team yet to run its 2026 car on-track. 

The crash tests have since been passed, with the FW48 set for a private shakedown before heading to Bahrain testing later this month. 

Vowles had long earmarked 2026 as the year for Williams to focus on after taking over and completing a restructuring of the Grove-based squad.

The car changes for 2026 are the single biggest year-to-year overhaul of the technical regulations in the history of grand prix racing, as Vowles explained how the added complication simply meant the team could not keep up. 

"The car this year that we've built, just to put a number on it, and it doesn't matter if I use number of hours or number of components, it is about three times more complicated than anything we've put through our business before," Vowles told select media, including RacingNews365. 

"So, in that perspective, it means the amount of load going through our system is about three times what it used to be, and we started falling behind a little bit and late on parts.

"There are compromises you can make as a result of it, and in addition to that, we have absolutely pushed the boundaries of what we're doing in certain areas, and one of those is in certain corresponding tests that go with it. 

"But those were only a blip in the grand scheme of things; they are one item out of quite a few, which were pushing us absolutely beyond the limit of what we can achieve in the space of the time we have available to us.

"So it is more of an output, of not just pushing the boundaries of design, but the boundaries of just simply how many components can be pushed through a factory in a very short space of time."