Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson believes upgrades to the team’s 2024 Formula 1 car can provide a baseline for next year’s machinery.
The Grove-based outfit has struggled to continue the strong form of last season after entering the current campaign with an overweight car as focus instead turned to upgrading its infrastructure during the winter.
While upgrades will be added to the car across the season in an attempt to make an instant step, teams are forced to strategise resource output due to F1’s aerodynamic testing restrictions and financial regulations.
This is complicated further over the next 18 months as attention begins to switch to the new-for-2026 regulations, meaning that teams may choose to sacrifice next year’s challengers in order to get a headstart on the new cars.
“It’s an interesting challenge we’ve been talking about for quite some time,” said Robson.
“There are bits of ’26 we can start to look at, not the aero side of it by regulation, but there are other things we can start to consider and that process inevitably is underway.
“The aero will come, although we’ve been able to do a little bit of aero under the TD from the FIA, they are really helping to understand the regulations. So that’s always useful to just get everyone’s mind into the 2026 game.
“But balancing the resource between not just from now, but from several months ago through the next couple of years, is going to be tricky, but obviously it’s the same for everyone and I’m sure most people will be fully focused on 2026 very quickly come the new year, and then it will be interesting then to see what people do next year.”
Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
On how the time will be split, Robson added: “I think for us, there’ll be brief periods early next calendar year when the 2026 car will come out of the wind tunnel and that will give us an opportunity for the odd day or two to put the FW47 – so the 2025 – car back in.
“We’ll be looking to do that and if we can find some way of bringing performance to it without compromising the 2026 program then we’ll obviously look to do that.
“But I suspect that will end really quite early in the calendar year, and it will be full on from a resource and budget point of view, on the 2026 car.”
Knowing that the focus will change so early in the year, it affords the opportunity to merge the 2024 and 2025 projects together to better maximise developmental gains, something that Robson has confirmed is being explored.
He said: “It’s been an interesting one because really, I think this year’s car and next year’s car, you can largely think of as just one project.
“The work on it will finish quite early next year, and there will be a case of racing it but not doing too much with it. That has, partly by serendipity I suppose, allowed us to consider these big updates that will come and bring them quite late in the year, knowing that they effectively at least inspire or become the baseline for next year’s car.
“That already starts to offload some of the work. We’ve brought some of that FW47 work forward, which will allow us to concentrate on the 2026 car as soon as possible.”
