Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has claimed that Williams shouldn’t be regarded as a “dark horse” in Formula 1 when it comes to the impending regulation change in 2026.
Williams has sustained a remarkable beginning to the campaign to score more points across the opening seven rounds than it has in the last two seasons combined.
The Grove-based squad has capitalised on Ferrari’s continuous struggle to extract performance in qualifying to achieve consecutive top-six starts in Miami and Imola.
But with the team electing to invest all resources in the revamped technical rules coming in 2026, Williams boss James Vowles is not expecting to maintain that level.
Asked whether Williams can continue mixing with the frontrunners without updates, Vowles told media including Motorsport Week in Monaco: “I think it will be tough is the reality behind it.
“We’ve been very candid that the other car got out the [wind]tunnel very early on, for good reason. And the ‘26 project is going very well.
“We had to do that, because we’re in a different position perhaps to most where that clean sheet of paper – we’re not carrying anything across at all – gives us an ability to do a full reset and fix some things that perhaps we should have done a few years ago but it’s very difficult to do in that cycle. So that’s our reasoning behind it.”
Mercedes backs Williams development switch
However, Wolff, who worked with Vowles at Mercedes prior to his switch to Williams in 2023, has backed his ex-colleague’s decision to pivot attention to next season.
And the Austrian has contended that it would be wrong to recognise Williams as an underdog heading into that period based on its renewed competitiveness in 2025.
“Williams is not such a dark horse anymore,” he stressed. “James has done a really good job with his team.
“They are playing… maybe not the front, but neither are we with McLaren and [Red Bull’s] Max [Verstappen] there.
“So it’s still beneficial because he’s carrying quite some wind tunnel time over from last year. Switching over to the ‘26 car is just the right move to do.
“When you look at the development slopes of those early gains every single week of the new car, they’re just tenfold of what you would achieve in a mature regulation.
“You can do tenfold development steps, but if you do it in the wrong direction it’s obviously not going to be helpful.
“But if you take the right decisions and you utilise this more wind tunnel time and steeper learning that can be a tremendous advantage for next year, especially if you don’t need to worry about the power unit and the fuel and oil and these things.”
Williams explains early crossover
Meanwhile, Vowles elucidated that Williams has decided to commit to an earlier crossover as he suspects that more-resourced rivals will outdevelop his side in 2026.
“I think we have to be realistic,” he cautioned. “The reason for doing this is to make a good foundation so that we can start moving forward.
“The reason why I started early is because our development rate and efficiency won’t be the same as others around us whilst we still go through a process of fixing and improving things.
“I’m really pleased with how the team is performing. It’s never one individual, it’s just how a thousand people are pulling together.
“But we still have a long journey in front of us before we’re anywhere close to the front.”
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc: Williams F1 turnaround a ‘matter of time’ with Carlos Sainz’s input
