Aston Martin Formula 1 development driver Jak Crawford is to drive the AMR24 for the first time in the Abu Dhabi young driver test.
The American’s deal with the team has always included the end-of-season running, but matters were complicated by discussions over the addition of a rookie sprint event, with the team’s longtime reserve Felipe Drugovich the obvious candidate to do the race.
There was even a suggestion that they would split the day, with Crawford testing and Drugovich doing the qualifying session and sprint, although it’s understood that the FIA wanted to have the same driver stay in the car.
However in the end the sprint was abandoned, leaving the team to run Crawford for the full day as planned.
Crawford, who is currently lying fifth in the FIA F2 championship, has already had some TPC running in the AMR22 in Austria.
“I’ve spent lots of hours on the simulator back at the AMR Technology Campus, and I will be continuing this ahead of the test to make sure I am well prepared,” said Crawford.
“Yas Marina is a circuit I know well, so hopefully this will help me get up to speed quickly. I would like to say a big thanks to everyone at Aston Martin Aramco for the chance to drive this year’s car in the test.”
Team boss Mike Krack said of Crawford: “He’s already shown a high level of understanding in previous tests with us this year and I know he will be working hard in preparation for the test alongside competing in the final two rounds of the F2 Championship.”
Norris admits that things haven’t always gone to plan recently
Lando Norris says he’s looking forward to a reset in the Formula 1 summer break after “stupid stuff and mistakes” have hurt his title bid in recent races.
The McLaren driver started fourth in Belgium but ran wide at the exit of the first corner, and thus he was only seventh at the end of the lap.
Although the Woking team was expected before the race to have good pace relative to other top teams he had only recovered one more position, from Carlos Sainz, before the chequered flag. However disqualification for George Russell gifted him fifth place.
“I misjudged it, honestly,” he said when asked by this writer about his start. “I just didn’t want to get taken out in Turn One, so I’ve left the gap and just misjudged the exit a little bit. I lost four or five positions.
“Just impossible to overtake, the overtaking sucked today, and I think there were very few overtakes actually done on track, most of it was just in the pit stops. There were some overtakes, but only when you had like a 10-lap tyre advantage.
“So otherwise a bit of a tough race with the overtaking. And I felt like we were quick, The car was quick. Just don’t feel like we maximised what we could have done.”
Norris admitted that things haven’t gone right for him in recent weeks.
“I think I just need to reset,” he said. “I’ve given away a lot of points over the last three, four races, just because of stupid stuff and mistakes and bad starts. Turn One now.
“I don’t know why. It’s just silly things. It’s not even difficult stuff. It’s just Turn One, trying to stay out of trouble, trying to make sure there’s a gap and not get hit, and then I put myself off the track. So just some stupid things. The pace is good. The team are doing an amazing job.
“So I’m happy. And in a way, I feel like I just don’t want to take a break. I just want to continue, because we’re on good form. Even today, I felt like the pace was very strong.
“But the last two, three races, I’ve just not clicked as much as I needed to, and given up a lot of points, so hopefully I can come back stronger.”
Asked to elaborate on his issues he highlighted his starts as a key weakness recently.
“It’s many different things,” he said. “It’s just different stuff. Obviously, my starts have not been great.
“I’ve lost probably a good amount of points off the line, and now Turn One again, easily a podium or even more. So there isn’t one reason. It’s maybe just trying a bit too hard and paying the price for that.”
Regarding his plan to reset during the break he added: “Just forget about it. Still another week of debriefs and stuff, so I’m in the factory for half of next week.
“Just kind of review everything and look over everything, make sure we take a break on a good note. Which I think we have, honestly, I feel like there’s a lot of positives. Just things haven’t clicked for us.
“But I feel like we’ve still got what we need and what we want, so I’m happy we’ve got what it takes to fight and to put up a good battle. But I’ve just not been on it from my side.
“So review my things and go away and forget about it for a good time, and then come back stronger.”
Alpine is set to align with Mercedes in 2026 – but could the Viry PU become a Cadillac?
On Friday Alpine’s outgoing Formula 1 team principal Bruno Famin confirmed that the Enstone outfit is planning to use a customer power unit in 2026, thus abandoning the in-house project that has been underway at Renault’s Viry-Chatillon base for the past couple of years.
He also stressed that the customer plan is pending agreement with the unions and French authorities, and a guarantee that the Viry employees will still have a job.
Famin talked in somewhat vague terms about the facility’s resources and the 250-300 people who work on F1 being reallocated to Alpine’s road car programme.
However there is a far more straightforward solution to the Viry problem, and one which will potentially actually earn the Renault Group a lot of money – sell the 2026 project to General Motors and create a Cadillac PU that could put Andretti on the grid.
As is well known Andretti’s original strategy was to be a Renault customer in 2026-’27, and then bring its own US-built Cadillac PU onstream in 2028.
Those plans remain in limbo given that F1 steadfastly refuses to approve Andretti’s entry.
In the rejection letter it sent on January 31 F1 specifically cited the customer engine plan as one of the key reasons, seemingly ignoring the fact that McLaren, Aston Martin, Williams, Haas and Sauber are all currently customer teams.
However the last paragraph appeared to leave the door open: “We would look differently on an application for the entry of a team into the 2028 Championship with a GM power unit, either as a GM works team or as a GM customer team designing all allowable components in-house.
“In this case there would be additional factors to consider in respect of the value that the applicant would bring to the championship, in particular in respect of bringing a prestigious new OEM to the sport as a PU supplier.”
This was written on the basis that, as per the plans submitted by Andretti, the Cadillac PU would not be ready until 2028. However, it was perhaps not as generous a concession as it might appear.
The entry process that Andretti took part in and which was approved on the FIA side was for 2025, 2026 or 2027. In other words an entry for 2028 would require a whole new process, and there’s no guarantee that Andretti would get past the FIA stage. It would also require the team to spend ‘25, ‘26 and ‘27 on the sidelines, spending a huge amount on salaries with no reward.
But what if Andretti could turn up with a Cadillac PU in 2026, or even 2027 if it takes more time to put the pieces together – in other words within the currently approved FIA entry window?
Renault has a PU project that has been full steam ahead for a couple of years and which is about to be canned, along with all the hybrid V6 knowledge gained since 2014. The IP of the 2026 project will be worth absolutely nothing – all that investment and no return.
Alpine may not want to use the Viry PU, but in theory there’s no reason why someone else can’t take over the project.
Renault could retain ownership of the Viry facility and simply provide IP and services to GM, in so doing creating a useful income stream that keeps the place running and still able to do other Alpine racing and road car work.
GM using Viry to create an F1 PU is little different to Ford doing it via Red Bull Powertrains, but to add some legitimacy it could bolster the French staff with a few US engineers, or perhaps undertake specific projects – as it is doing with the Andretti chassis – at its American facility. All of which would of course have to be done within the restrictions of the new PU financial regulations.
If it happened Cadillac could have a PU two years earlier than planned, the Viry operation could continue with barely a blip, and the Renault shareholders would surely welcome the funding that will be pumped in. And F1 will still have six PU manufacturers in 2026.
It all makes so much sense in theory. However, the reality is that the political complications will be hard to overcome. Renault boss Luca de Meo would have to be keen to make it happen, and any deal would have to be discussed at CEO level with his GM/Cadillac counterparts.
And given that Flavio Briatore is his advisor, the former Benetton boss would also have to have good reasons to support a GM deal.
It’s widely believed that Briatore’s longer term goal on De Meo’s behalf is to increase the value of the Enstone team in preparation for an eventual sale. Many observers believe that taking a Mercedes PU in 2026 is seen as a simple shortcut to better results, which will in turn boost the value of the team.
Thus helping Andretti to get on the grid, diluting the prize fund and potentially reducing the value of all 10 current teams, would not be in De Meo’s interests. In addition he is close to F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, who strongly opposes the Andretti entry, and it makes little sense to rock the boat. Indeed sources suggest that De Meo is not been keen to help Andretti in any way.
Has a Cadillac/Viry deal already been discussed by GM and Renault? Given that it has been several weeks since the first stories of the Alpine customer PU plan emerged, potentially leaving Andretti without an engine for 2026 and ’27, it would be naïve to think that there hasn’t already been a conversation, and Halfway house scenarios such a sale of specific IP to fast track a full US Cadillac project, for example battery technology, may also be on the table. How far any such talks have got is another story.
The clock is already ticking in terms of an Andretti entry in 2026, and also in terms of key Viry staff sticking around rather than jumping ship to Audi or Red Bull, the obvious destinations.
The question now is what can GM and Andretti do to convince De Meo and Renault to play ball?
Williams endured a frustrating weekend in Barcelona
Alex Albon was left frustrated after a suspected gust of wind sent him off the road in the closing stages of the Spanish GP, exposing the sensitivity problem that has been a topic at Williams in recent years.
Having started from the pitlane Albon was running 18th and chasing Kevin Magnussen when on lap 59 a sudden snap of oversteer sent him through a gravel trap.
The off cost him around nine seconds and any chance of catching the Haas driver ahead, but he managed to resume in front of the chasing Yuki Tsunoda.
He immediately asked his team, “What the hell was that?”, to be told “It’s all OK from our side.”
Not happy with the prompt reply he said, “No it’s not OK, don’t just say that in five seconds.”
Further discussion ensued, and after the flag Albon was told that there was a 17kph gust at the point where he went off.
“The wind’s been up and down all race,” he said when asked by this writer about the incident. “I don’t know how it was for everyone else, but for a car that’s sensitive in the wind, it was not enjoyable.
“Doing our race, I felt like we were on plan to get the Alfa [Valtteri Bottas] and the Haas in front of us. We had a good tyre strategy, I think we were doing the right choices. The main issue was really that off.
“But I know what the limit is on my car, and that wasn’t the limit. And I had a huge off. So I got told there was nothing wrong immediately afterwards, I was there is something wrong, In the end, I think we had a big gust just when I hit the brakes. We don’t like gusts, and it just caught me out. One of those things.”
Albon and Williams knew that Barcelona would be a tough weekend, but nevertheless he was not satisfied with the outcome as the team fell behind rivals.
“I wanted more,” he said. “I look at it two ways. I look at it, compared to last year, the car’s made a huge step forward. So in that sense, I’m happy. At the same time that whole midfield is so much stronger now that that’s not enough.
“And second to that is just when the midfield is getting so tight, and when we are in some ways, catching and we’re getting closer to the to the top, to the leaders, being a bit overweight, lacking a little bit of loads, it adds up, basically.
“And I’m not saying that this weekend exposed us, but I think it just highlights for us a little bit. It was a windy track, a hot track, on a very well-known track for everyone else. To me, just highlights the load, and that’s what’s not quite there.
“Yet, we’re good on tracks which are a little bit more unique and unconventional, but we come to a track everyone’s been to, drivers have done a million laps, everyone’s confident around the circuit, you can’t really make that difference.”
Albon remains hopeful that the next two races will be better for the FW46.
“Look at Monaco, look at Canada,” he said. “Good pace in the car, real pace as well, nothing odd about it, no weird weather or anything like that. Austria and Silverstone, let’s see.
“I think what was clear about Monaco and Canada, tyres were quite easy, as in they were both kind on the tyres. There was no wind, because they are street tracks. So it kind of played to our advantage a bit more. So I hope for a non-windy Silverstone!”
One positive note was that Williams gave up Albon’s lowly 19th grid position for a pitlane start in order to give him a new energy store and control electronics, thus reducing the chances of a penalty later in the year.
“It was a race we could in some ways use to sacrifice a little bit, get some components in the pool, and just basically prepare a bit more for Austria and Silverstone, tracks that should suit us much more.”
George Russell led the opening laps in Canada but had to settle for third
Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says that the team “dreamt” about scoring its first win of the year in Canada but doesn’t yet have a good enough car to do so.
George Russell took pole and led the early wet laps of the race, but he eventually finished third, while team mate Lewis Hamilton climbed from seventh to fourth.
Wolff admitted that while it has improved of late the W15 still isn’t as competitive as it needs to be.
“Maybe for a few minutes we dreamt about it, but in reality, probably not,” he said when asked if the team had a winning car in Montreal.
“I think definitely since Imola we’ve taken the right steps and put parts on the car that were working, and that is something that we were struggling with in the past couple of years.
“And now, directionally, we seem to be adding performance every weekend, and we have new parts coming in Barcelona that should that help us. So I would very much hope that we can continue this positive trajectory.”
By way of caution he added: “I am always a bit worried, when you’re being carried away, that everything seems to fall into place, because this is a difficult sport. We’ve had this positive trajectory now since the last three races, and everything seems to be making much more sense. So the stopwatch will tell us.”
Russell and Hamilton both expressed their frustration after the flag, with the former apologising to the team for an “ugly race”.
However Wolff insisted that they should be satisfied with the results they achieved.
“I think when you finish third and fourth, where we have been coming from, then it’s a positive race,” he said.
“Three and four is much better than we had previously, what we had in the in the last few races. So that’s good.
“But I think both drivers saw that more was [possible], because we could have maybe gained a position or two, and that’s why there is a kind of negative sentiment that prevails.
“But if you would have given them third and fourth before the weekend, probably they would have taken it.”
Wolff downplayed the suggestion that the new front wing first seen in Monaco was key to the recent improvement.
“Sometimes when you bring a highly visible part, like a body work, this is pretty much the talk of what has changed the performance,” he said.
“The truth is we have, over the last three races, brought so many new parts, visible and invisible for the eye, that have contributed milliseconds to more performance.
“And I think this is where those marginal gains can have that positive effect. And that was just a huge effort of the factory. And so I think the wheel has started to get some real motion now.”
Expanding on the recent improvement he said: “There’s no such thing as the silver bullet in F1, and therefore it was a constant work of understanding what was wrong.
“And I know that everybody got tired by this answer, but you can’t reverse engineer the performance of the car and say we’re looking at the Red Bull and this is what we want our car to look like.
“You really need to work your way through the problems. And it didn’t seem to correlate between the tunnel and the track.
“And the car was difficult to drive, ride was not good, we had the bouncing or bottoming coming back and then we had we had a clear indication of what we were missing in the jigsaw. We put the piece in, and I think now it’s fine.”
The 2026 cars will be lighter and smaller than the current ones, albeit not by much…
The FIA has released the first details of the 2026 Formula 1 technical rules package, which is set to be ratified by the World Motor Sport Council at the end of this month.
While the power unit spec has been available for some time the chassis regulations have been under debate.
Significantly the new cars will be 30kgs lighter – with the limit cut from 798kgs to 768kgs – and they will be 100mm narrower, and shorter, with the wheelbase trimmed by 200mm. The floor will be 150mm narrower.
As Pirelli requested 18-inch tyres have been retained, although they will be reduced in width by 25mm at the front, and 30mm at the rear.
The cars will also have active aerodynamics, with moveable front and rear wings. The FIA says that the system “will result in greater cornering speeds with standard Z-Mode deployed. On straights drivers will be able to switch to X-Mode a low-drag configuration designed to maximise straight-line speed.”
Expanding on the aero package the FIA notes the following changes: “A three-element active rear wing will be adopted, while the lower beam wing has been removed and end plates have been simplified.
“The front wing will be 100mm narrower than currently and will feature a two-element active flap.
“In contrast to the current cars, front wheel arches will be removed, and part of the wheel bodywork will be mandated, to help achieve optimal wake performance.
“In-washing wheel wake control boards will sit on the front of the side pods to assist with the control of the wheel wake.
“The cars will feature a partially flat floor and a lower-powered diffuser, which will reduce the ground effect and the reliance of the cars on ultra-stiff and low set-ups.
FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem is bullish about the prospects for the new cars, which will use sustainable fuel.
“Following the publication of 2026 power unit regulations two years ago we have taken the opportunity to redefine the chassis regulations to match the energy requirement of the new power units,” he said.
“Collaborating with our partners at Formula 1 and with the assistance of the sport’s 10 teams and all our stakeholders this represents a unique revision that will ensure our premier championship is even more relevant to what is happening in the world.
“The power unit regulations have already resulted in a record number of PU manufacturers committing to the sport. And now, in tandem with chassis regulations that provide for lighter, more agile cars featuring innovative aerodynamic solutions, we have created a set of regulations designed to not only improve racing but also to make the championship even more attractive to PU manufacturers, OEMs and existing competitors.
“The key features of the 2026 F1 regulations are advanced, sustainability technology and safety. Our aim, together with Formula 1, was to produce a car that was right for the future of the sport’s elite category. We believe we have achieved that goal.”
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali added: “These regulations mark a significant moment in the future of our sport as we look forward to a new generation of car and power unit that aims to give our fans closer and exciting racing.
“The new sustainably fuelled hybrid power unit presents a huge opportunity for the global automotive industry, the drop in fuel has the potential to be used by cars around the world and dramatically cut emissions. Its potential is one of the key reasons why we will have a record number of engine suppliers in Formula 1 in 2026.
“We enter this new regulatory cycle with the sport in the strongest position it has ever been, and I am confident that the work done by the FIA to create these regulations will further strengthen the position of the sport around the world.”
The RB19 of Sergio Perez sustained huge damage after contact with Magnussen
Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen says that Sergio Perez “squeezed me into the wall” when the pair clashed on the run up to Casino on the first lap of the Monaco GP.
Magnussen looked for a gap on the right of the Red Bull driver, and the cars touched and speared into the barriers.
Magnussen’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg almost squeezed through on the left, but was clipped by Perez, ensuring that both Haas cars were eliminated.
The FIA stewards looked at the incident but neither Magnussen not Perez was penalised, much to the Mexican’s frustration.
“I think the move was unnecessary, we sustained a lot of damage, and it was a very dangerous incident,” said Perez. “I was disappointed it didn’t get investigated, it was an immense crash and my car is completely destroyed.”
Asked by this writer about the collision Magnussen was adamant that Perez was at fault.
“Well, he clearly wasn’t leaving space, but I thought he would,” he said. “I had a good part of my front – my whole front wheel was ahead of his rear wheel – so I did expect him to be leaving room for one car on his right, especially since he didn’t have anyone on his inside.
“On his left there was a completely clear track. He just went and squeezed me into the wall. It’s not good to see both cars in one crash. It sucks. I mean, it’s a shitty situation.”
A frustrated Hulkenberg indicated that both drivers were to blame.
“Well, I saw them racing up the hill, I saw a very sharp, narrow gap,” said the German when asked by this writer about the contact.
“And I saw that Kevin stayed and that Checo also didn’t move. I don’t know if Checo saw him or not. I think unnecessary from both really, it could have been avoided easily. Obviously, for me, who wasn’t directly involved, it’s even the shittiest from all.
“I missed it probably by two-tenths. If I would have been two-tenths further up the road, he would have missed me. But as it was, he hit me with a small margin of his car, but enough to end my race as well.
“Nobody has won Monaco Grand Prix on lap one. You have to take calculated risk and risks that make sense. And it’s always that risk reward question that you have to question yourself.
Regarding the lack of penalties he added: “To some extent, it is definitely a racing incident, lap one, street circuit, narrow, visibility poor, drivers not always exactly knowing where the other car is. And these things happen, unfortunately.”
Drivers missing the chicane on Sunday have to give back the time gained by Tabac
The FIA is set to clamp down on Formula 1 drivers potentially gaining an advantage by cutting the Monaco chicane in Sunday’s race.
The subject of going off track has become a talking point at several venues this year.
In Jeddah Kevin Magnussen did to make a pass on Yuki Tsunoda in Jeddah, accepted a penalty, and then defended his Haas team mate Nico Hulkenberg up ahead.
Magnussen was again in the news in the Miami sprint after going off track on several occasions during his battle to keep Lewis Hamilton behind, again protecting Hulkenberg. He received multiple penalties for the various offences, further ramping up the debate about such strategic moves, with McLaren boss Andrea Stella calling his tactics “completely unacceptable.”
However Magnussen was himself upset with Hulkenberg after the German jumped the chicane, got himself out of the Dane’s DRS range, and was able to pull away.
Although he didn’t reference the incident on the radio at the time he was part of a discussion on the matter in the Imola drivers’ briefing.
In Monaco the issue is not so much breaking the DRS but gaps between drivers ahead of pit stops, which are so critical in a race that sees little on-track overtaking.
In the past drivers have cut the chicane a lap or two before their stops either to open up a gap to the car behind, or close it to the car in front, thus potentially gaining an advantage that could earn them a place in the pits.
After a discussion in Friday’s briefing in Monaco it was agreed that the FIA would monitor the situation carefully on Sunday.
A driver who does cut the chicane has to give back any advantage gained by Tabac, the following corner, or face an investigation.
They thus just have a few seconds in which to make that call effectively on their own, as there will be barely any time for their engineers to intervene and ask them to cede any advantage.
They would also potentially lose some momentum heading into Tabac and the fast Swimming Pool section that follows.
The standard penalty for gaining an advantage by going off track is 10 seconds, with a drive through to potentially follow.
Gaining an advantage remains a major talking point in briefings, with the Magnussen/Hulkenberg incident in Miami providing an interesting case study.
“I couldn’t talk about that on the radio because I didn’t want Nico to get a penalty,” said Magnussen when asked it by this writer. “I was pissed off that he cut the chicane and I missed out on DRS, but I couldn’t really talk about it.
“But then I did exactly the same thing. And in fact, I lost time. I gained time to Lewis, but I lost time to my best sector. Nico gained, he did a green sector. So I think his case was even a little worse than mine.
“I’m happy he didn’t get a penalty, because he went on to score points. But what’s the difference? I mean, why did I get it? Lewis complained on radio, as he should.
“I had DRS. And then I lost DRS. He cut the chicane and opened the gap. Is that not an advantage?”
Hulkenberg downplayed the incident and said that he had tried to minimise the advantage gained.
“I didn’t intentionally cut the chicane, I locked up and I would have jumped the kerb like Max [Verstappen] did on Sunday,” said the German. “And that actually gave me DRS from the car in front.
“But on the next straight I didn’t use DRS for that very reason, because I got it without properly earning it. So I kind of neglected the gain that I got from it, but obviously Kevin behind he lost it probably for a tenth, and it just shows that very fine margins can have a very big impact.”
He added: “For missing a chicane, you don’t usually get a penalty. It’s at most track limits or something.
“I think if you leave the track and you gain an advantage, if I would have then used DRS and overtaken the guy, I think that’s a different story but how it went, it’s racing. Twenty drivers, 18 different opinions. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
Albon endured a difficult weekend at Imola with the FW46
Alex Albon insists that it’s not “doom and gloom” for the Williams Formula 1 team despite a difficult weekend in Imola.
Albon was left with a loose front wheel after his tyre stop and lost a lot of time returning to the pits. He also received a 10-second penalty for an unsafe release.
After that his race turned into a test session, and the team eventually told him to retire the car in the closing laps.
Earlier in the weekend team boss James Vowles had admitted that the FW46 is significantly overweight, at the expense of valuable lap time. The Emilia Romagna race saw the first steps taken in a weight-saving programme for the car.
Williams has yet to score a point in 2024, but Albon has downplayed any concerns.
“What’s positive – it’s not really a positive – is that kind of midfield, they’re not scoring a tremendous amount of points, so it’s not like we’re falling away and we can’t catch up,” he said.
“I think if you look at last year, we were in the same position, we scored I think it was one point at this point last year. And then we came on strong, albeit we had a big upgrade package that was coming to the car.
“This year now it’s a bit more obvious, but it’s more about taking the weight out of the car, and while we’re taking out weight others are still upgrading and still performing.
“So yeah, let’s see how it how it goes down. I think this weekend we took a little bit out of the car, which showed a little bit more competitiveness in the car in qualifying.
“Honestly. I don’t know how my race pace was. But I was kind of okay, I was in no man’s land. I didn’t have any tyres left after the issue. But in my head it’s not doom and gloom. We have a plan, if we didn’t have a plan I would I would call it doom and gloom.”
Albon said he knew fairly quickly that one of his front tyres was not fully secure after the stop.
“I didn’t feel it coming down the pits,” he said. “But as soon as I took the pit limiter off there was like a vibration, and then I could tell something was wrong.
“It was still attached, and when I was turning around corners you can see if the tyre’s going to fall off, but it would only go to a point and stop, so I could see it was quite safe. There was only about 10mm of movement on the tyre.”
Albon admitted that the race turned into a test session: “We were just trying some stuff, trying to figure out some of our braking feelings with the car, and just trying to see if there any solutions on the long run with the car we’ve got, just playing around with the brakes, basically. I don’t know if there’s much to say really, just driving around, experimenting.”
Albon conceded that he is unsure of the FW46’s potential in Monaco this weekend.
“It’s never been a track we’ve gone well, it’s actually a track that we’ve always struggled at,” he said.
“I think it’s one of those ones where I feel excited to go to tracks where we were not good, and see if they’re much better.
“I’m hoping Monaco is going to be a good example of a step forward of our foundation of our car. And then I’m interested to go to Canada and see if the car is strong, like it was last year.”
Williams Formula 1 boss James Vowles says that an overweight car has hindered the team in recent seasons – and that this weekend’s race at Imola sees the start of a programme to address the issue.
Vowles says that the team managed to reduce the chassis weight by 14kgs between 2023 and 2024, which represents a significant saving.
However increases in other areas as the team rushed to complete the car in time for Bahrain testing put the overall package added more weight to the overall package.
Vowles says that the extra weight has cost Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant 0.450s a lap thus far this season, which suggests that the FW46 is around 15kgs above the limit.
“We have produced cars that are not at the weight limit – and I only went back and looked unfortunately, too late – every year since 2019,” he said.
“None of the cars have started at the weight limit, they’ve been far up above it. To give you a view of the pit lane at the moment, everyone out there is near enough at the weight limit, and very few will have physical ballast on the car. Very, very few.
“The transformation we did between 2023 to ‘24 was that we took 14kgs out of the chassis. And for anyone in the business that knows those numbers, you’ll realise that’s an extraordinary feat, the team did very well in doing that.
“However, the car this year that we’ve been running is about four and a half tenths a lap slower every lap by the fact that it’s so overweight.”
Vowles says that the extra weight accumulated largely because the team has traditionally been late in completing the new car build during the winter, and thus compromises are made in the latter stages as the deadline of the first test approaches.
“What happens when you challenge the system and the technology is you can get an output from it,” he said. “And the output from it is things get delayed, and weight gets added is one of the fixes in order to get you back on track.
“And we added an enormous amount of weight – despite the chassis being in a much better place, we added an enormous amount of weight.
“And when I went back through the history of us, of how we operate, with these facilities, with the systems, with the process and structures we have, weight became the natural outlet for it. And as a result of that we’ve been overweight for many, many years.
“What we gave Alex is a car that he’s been openly speaking about as much better balanced, it’s a much better package. If you take four and a half tenths off, you’ll have a realisation as to why Alex has been sat here frustrated.
“What’s not of interest to me is what’s happened. It’s how we move forward from this point on.
“So Imola is the start of weight being shed, that will now continue across the next six races fundamentally, in order to get us back to where we need to be.”
Vowles also admitted that attempts to save weight and develop the car have been hindered by the accident damage incurred thus far this year, which has soaked up resources.
“What’s hindered us is that across the beginning of the season, we have damaged four gearboxes beyond repair, we have damaged five floors, we have damaged four front wings, four rear wings, and some miscellaneous bits,” he noted.
“Any team on the grid, go speak to them, you can’t deal with that plus taking out weight, plus adding aerodynamic performance we’ve hinted ourselves. So the damage bill I just couldn’t believe would have happened at three races.
“But that’s where we are. I’m not proud of any of these facts. But the reason why I’m being open and transparent about it is that’s a red line.
“And this is where it stops and downwards. we produce cars that are effectively up to where they need to be. Williams for many years has had some great people working on items.
“But it’s incredibly expensive, taking weight out of the car and a lot of what we’ve been doing, I did it last year when I joined here is taking weight out. It’s very inefficient in doing it. And that stops now and that’s one of the foundations moving forwards.”
Adam Cooper F1 