Williams boss James Vowles said the team is “cornered” by certain limitations plaguing its current Formula 1 car.
Despite Williams getting off to its strongest start to a season in nine years, scoring 25 points across the first five races, the FW47 has posed some peculiarities.
The bottom line is that Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon are experiencing balance issues with the team’s 2025 F1 challenger.
However, with the team turning its attention to 2026, Williams is going to have to make do and mend with what it has.
“We have a small balance problem that we are trying to solve with the tools we have, because with evolutions I don’t think there is a chance considering that we put all our efforts in 2026,” Sainz told select media including Motorsport Week in Bahrain.
“(The issue) appears more in low and medium speed corners. If we improve it, the car has a lot of potential and so does the team.”
A week later, Vowles, amid his confirmation in Saudi Arabia that Williams would be switching off development of the FW47 in the wind tunnel to full focus on next year’s car, also addressed the current challenger’s limitations.
“We have some characteristics in the car that are still not at the right level,” he said (via RacingNews365).
“I don’t think we have the balance that we should have for the drivers, and we’re a little bit cornered on some of the tools that we’re using at the moment.”
‘Sticking plasters’ needed to fix Williams issues
With wind tunnel development fully geared towards 2026’s FW48, Vowles explained how Sainz and Albon will be necessary tools in dealing with Williams’ car issues.
“The great thing about Carlos is that both he and Alex are aligned on their thought process, so we have good direction,” he said.
“You get a problem when both drivers are, or even one is using it as a tool to distract. We’re not. Both are very clear on where the problems are.
“I think [there are] some elements that we can bring in line this year. Some of it, however, is a different direction that we need to take for the future.
“So, answering the question, why is it a problem? I think our balance is just not where it needs to be for the drivers to get the most out of the car, and it’s a difficult car to drive.”
In addition, through set-up tweaks and mechanical changes, Williams can make damage limitation changes to the FW47 to help cure its problems.
“I think we have a series of sticking plasters we can put on it now,” Vowles continued.
“That’s already a good thing, because it means that inherently, we are touching the right element of things, we’re pulling the right strings, and that for fixing it, we need to make sure we’re fixing absolutely the right element.
“But I do not think we can inherently fix it in 2025.”
That leaves Williams with a task to grab as many points as possible before its midfield rivals catch up.
As it stands, Williams sits fifth in the Constructors’ standings, with 25 points, five ahead of Haas.
Seventh-placed Aston Martin is a further 10 points back from Haas.
READ MORE – Williams pulls the trigger on massive F1 2026 development shift
