Williams has brought the fewest updates of all Formula 1 teams so far in the 2024 season – Dave Robson explains the Grove-based team’s current approach
For many teams, the 2025 Formula 1 season will be a year of transition. Because a completely new set of regulations will take effect in the premier class from 2026, the cars will only be further developed to a manageable extent in the coming year
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams, explains: “I’m sure most people will be focusing on 2026 very quickly in the new year, and then it will be interesting to see what people do next year.”
The focus at Williams itself will also quickly shift to 2026 next year. Robson emphasizes: “I think there will be short phases at the beginning of next calendar year when the 2026 car comes out of the wind tunnel.”
This “idle time” will then be used to further develop the 2025 car, “and if we can find a way to increase performance without jeopardizing the 2026 program, we will of course do that,” Robson announces.
“But I suspect,” Robson also clarifies, ”that this will end quite early in the calendar year.” This is because development in Grove in 2025 will also be “fully focused on the 2026 car in terms of resources and budget. ”
No team in 2024 with fewer updates than Williams
In this context, “I think you can look at this year’s car and next year’s car largely as a single project,” says Robson. This is because the parts that will be added to the FW46 in the course of the current season will then already be the basis for the FW47.
It was partly a “happy coincidence” that this approach was taken. Williams actually wanted to give the current car some updates much earlier. But these were delayed because there were several difficulties at the start of the season
For example, there were initially not enough spare parts for the FW46, which was exacerbated by a crash involving Alexander Albon in Melbourne. As a result, team colleague Logan Sargeant was ultimately unable to take part in the race in Australia.
In addition, the current car suffered from severe “overweight” at the beginning, which is why this problem was tackled first before “real” performance updates were introduced. “All of this also delayed the introduction of the major update,” explains Robson.
In fact, Williams brought the fewest updates of any team to the race track until the 2024 summer break. The Grove-based team has officially submitted just 15 updates for the FW46 to the FIA. By comparison, Aston Martin has had a whopping 38 so far
Williams plan: focus on 2026 “as quickly as possible ”
In Grove, a virtue was therefore made of necessity. Robson explains that the further updates for the FW46 will be brought out “quite late in the year, knowing that they will at least inspire or form the basis of next year’s car.”
The advantage of this, according to Robson: “We’ve already brought forward some of the work on the FW47, which allows us to focus on the 2026 car as quickly as possible.” The disadvantage is that the FW46 has hardly received any new parts recently
In seven of the eight races before the summer break, Williams had no updates, only in Canada did they announce some changes during this period. The direct competitors in the midfield brought significantly more innovations in this period.
“Hopefully we will more than catch up, but it’s a bit later than we wanted,” admits Robson, who nevertheless emphasizes that this has enabled them to bring forward some of the development for 2025.
And that could pay off next year, giving them more freedom with the car for the 2026 season.
