Williams team principal James Vowles says the decision not to bring further upgrades for its car was “painful”.
The team which finished fifth in the world championship last year has sunk to ninth in the standings. It introduced a new chassis for both drivers at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but has not developed it in order to maximise its potential under Formula 1’s budget cap.“We’ve had a tough year, simple as that,” Vowles told Sky. “This is not where we wanted to be.
“Our development kicked in to ’27 early on. The chassis we brought to Baku were ’27 chassis, perfectly brought forward, but spent the money in this year to allow us to get to where we need to.
“We’ve purposely not spent money on – we have more aero locked away in the wind tunnel that we have not brought to the track, really saving the cost cap dollars for next year.
“It’s horribly painful. I can’t tell you how painful it was to sit in the meeting and make those decisions, because it’s just not the way you think. You want every millisecond on track.”
He said the team has focused its efforts on developments for next year, when the chassis will be largely unchanged from this season.
“The work we’ve been doing in Austin, the work we have done less so today, but more in Mexico, was preparation work for ’27 as well. Understanding the package, the aero development mechanisms we’ve gone through, it helps us get ahead of the curve.
“We’re aware that with this car at the moment, points are only going to be there if fortune falls our way, and the reality behind it is we’re better off investing in the future.”
However the team also limited its running in practice today in order to reduce wear on its diminishing stock of parts.
“We are getting towards the end of the season so we want to basically reduce down the mileage just a little bit for both cars and just make sure that we’re clean all the way through for the remainder,” said Vowles.
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