The FW48 has struggled with excess weight and performance limitations after production delays forced Williams to miss the Barcelona shakedown.
Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon recorded five points finishes during the opening races, with Albon’s eighth place in Monaco remaining the team’s best result.
Williams has not scored since, with the cars generally finishing between 15th and 17th as rival midfield teams introduced substantial upgrades. “I think what’s been interesting this year is most of the midfield teams always bring one or two upgrades a year,” Albon said.
“This year, even the midfield teams are bringing three or four upgrades a year, and the size of the upgrades is huge as well.”
Albon said the development package would have returned Williams to contention under normal circumstances, but competitors had improved more quickly. “The speed of the development race this year is huge, and we’ve fallen back,” Albon said.
Williams is currently losing about one second a lap to the midfield during races, leaving the Baku package with a substantial deficit to address. “We’re finishing realistically 50 seconds behind the midfield at the minute in a race,” Albon said.
“We know it’s going to be a good step. Is it going to be the full step? I’m hopeful for it, but I don’t think it will be.”
Sainz expects the upgrade to improve the team’s chances of scoring points but cautioned against expecting an immediate return to the front of the midfield. “That upgrade is going to definitely help us to get ourselves closer to potentially fighting for some points,” Sainz said.
“But realistically speaking, that’s nowhere near where we wanted to be this year, nowhere near what we promised.”
The upgrade will also test whether new development processes and simulation tools are producing the expected performance gains.
Williams Team Principal James Vowles said the team had previously relied on “educated guessing” because important simulation technology only became available after much of the FW48 had been designed. “You’re making a thousand decisions in the winter,” Vowles said. “You don’t need many of them to be wrong before you start putting yourself on the wrong path.”
Williams is increasingly shifting development resources towards the next car, making Baku the likely final major performance push of 2026.
“Our biggest hope is putting all the eggs in next year’s basket,” Sainz said.
–F1/ChannelAfrica–
