Williams reveals 2026 F1 look after Barcelona test setback
Williams presents its 2026 F1 car livery after the "painful" decision to skip the Barcelona test
Williams' 2026 colours
Williams
The Williams Formula 1 team has revealed its colour scheme for the 2026 season after the Grove team delayed its public debut, having skipped the Barcelona shakedown last week.
The car was conspicuously absent from the Barcelona test, sidelined by production delays that left the team unable to deliver its 2026 challenger in time for crucial running.
On Tuesday, Williams revealed the first images of the FW48 paint scheme, which is now scheduled to run in anger against its rivals in the first Bahrain test next week.
The Barcelona setback was frustrating for a squad keen to capitalise on the clean-slate opportunity presented by F1’s new technical regulations.
Team boss James Vowles described the decision as “painful” and the result of “our determination to push the limits of performance under these new regulations for 2026.”
“We are transforming fast. But this shows, and my words have already said over the last few years, we’re not yet at a championship level and we still have a tremendous amount of work to do,” Vowles added.
The sweeping aerodynamic changes and revised power unit formula are meant to offer teams like Williams a chance to reset its fortunes, although missing valuable track time while rivals rack up miles places the Grove squad immediately on the back foot.
The team enjoyed a strong 2025 campaign, climbing to fifth in the constructors’ championship, its best result in years.
The upward trajectory is the context in which the FW48 will be judged, as Williams heads into 2026 no longer simply hoping the regulation reset will shuffle the order, but believing it has rebuilt enough of its foundations to exploit it.
Williams remains aligned with Mercedes on the power unit side, a partnership that should at least guarantee a stable and competitive baseline as the grid navigates the complexities of the new hybrid era.
Vowles has two strong drivers in Sainz and Albon, who are both helping to push the team up the grid
The bigger question lies in how effectively Williams can integrate that package into a chassis and aero platform conceived under intense time pressure and with limited real-world validation so far.
Under Vowles, Williams has been explicit that this is a multi-year transformation rather than a single-regulation gamble, and the FW48’s delayed arrival is framed as a consequence of pushing aggressively within those evolving systems.
Much will also rest on the experience and stability of Williams’ driver line-up.
Alex Albon enters his fifth season with the team as a proven reference point, his role as a development driver central to Williams’ recent progress.
Albon will be partnered again by Carlos Sainz, who gave Williams two podium finishes in 2025.
Williams 2026 F1 car reveal
Williams has opted to reveal its 2026 Formula 1 car via a virtual launch on 3 February, shelving plans for an in-person event amid the production delays that prevented the FW48 from running at last week’s opening pre-season test in Barcelona.
Williams shakedown and testing schedule
Williams missed the opening pre-season test in Barcelona but is running an alternative testing programme, including a ‘virtual track test’ – a rig-based programme where the physical car, engine, and gearbox are put through their paces.
After that, Williams is schedule to join the rest of the teams for the first of two tests in Bahrain next week.
Williams’ 2026 car
Williams enters the new rules era as a team in transition, seeking to build on recent progress while confronting the reality that a technical reset offers both opportunity and peril in equal measure.
The Grove-based team continues its partnership with Mercedes as a customer power unit supplier, a relationship that has provided stability during its gradual climb up the competitive order but now faces the same intense scrutiny as all customer operations as engine performance and integration become paramount under the new regulations.
Williams’s challenge has always been to maximise limited resources through intelligent engineering choices and aerodynamic efficiency, a philosophy that has yielded incremental gains in recent seasons and one it must now apply under entirely different technical constraints with potentially transformative effect.
The FW48 should allow Williams to elevate itself from midfield leader, a position it occupied in 2025, to occasional frontrunner capable of mixing it with the established top teams.
Williams 2026 F1 driver line-up
Alex Albon
Contract through at least 2026
Albon committed his future to Williams with a multi-year contract extension agreed in 2024, tying him to the Grove-based team through at least the end of the 2026 season. After an impressive 2025 campaign that has only increased his stock across the grid, the Thai-British driver is firmly on the radar – but, for now, a move elsewhere looks improbable.
Carlos Sainz
Contract through at least 2026
Sainz is likewise contracted to Williams until at least the end of 2026. While his early races in Williams colours prompted scrutiny, the Spaniard’s form surged as the season progressed. Two podium finishes in the latter stages of 2025 transformed the narrative, firmly re-establishing his credentials.
