Williams boss James Vowles has revealed that his long-term plan to return the team to the top in Formula 1 has extended to allocating some people to work on 2027.
The Grove-based squad has been unable to build upon a promising seventh-place finish last term as it has regressed to ninth in 2024 with four points from 14 rounds.
Williams’ woes have been well-documented as rushed deadlines to construct a revised car concept has seen the FW46 operate above the FIA’s minimum weight limit.
However, Vowles has expressed that he is not concerned about Williams’ dip as he continues putting in the building blocks to transcend the side’s budding prospects.
The Briton has repeated that Williams’ main attention is tailored towards ensuring it has a competitive base once all-new technical regulations are introduced in 2026.
“As strange as this sounds, I’m not worried about it,” Vowles told media including Motorsport Week regarding Williams’ competitiveness.
“I’m not worried about it because I’ve said from the beginning everything we are doing is investing in ‘26 and beyond.
“And a lot of what we’re doing at the moment is really quite invisible under the surface.
“But it’s changing fundamentally the technologies that are in Williams, the culture that’s in Williams, the people that’s in Williams, the infrastructure that we have available to us.
“I did mention it once or twice last year, but the impact could even be a slight negative as you go forward into 2024 and then you start to get output from then onwards.
“So, I think there’s no doubt that what I’ve been discussing with Williams is it’s a journey back to competitiveness.
“We’ve started from further back than I would like. We’ve started with perhaps a situation not as strong as I would like as well within our organisation.
“But what I’m also able to say here is I’m very confident in what we are doing behind the scenes.
“I’m confident in the investments we’re making, I’m confident in the journey that we’re on and there’s nothing that I would have changed along this pathway so far.”
That rapid expansion has enabled Vowles to implement a culture change within Williams which will now see the squad plan for seasons in advance like the big-hitters.
“We’re also investing in ’25,” he added. “So our car is not a ’24 car in the wind tunnel. It’s been ’25 for quite a few months.
“That won’t surprise you. I did exactly the same thing last year where we’re trying to get ahead of the curve.
“And the reason why we’re doing this is not because I believe in ’25, but I want to get the ’26 car in the tunnel as soon as possible, but have a sensible ’25, ’26 car.
“So that’s fundamentally what we’re doing. Everything we’re doing is basically forward borrowing against getting everything as quickly as possible into ’26.
“Within our team, we’ve separated the team out now. With the additional resource, we have team members focused on ’24, ’25, ’26, and a little bit of ’27 as well at the same time.
“And that’s a change for Williams. We’re more used to working one year in advance, or even on the current year.
“And as you can imagine, when you do that within an organisation, it takes time to adapt and grow to it.
“Mercedes do it. I guarantee you Red Bull do it. It’s just for us. That’s a large department we’re working out here.
“With all that in mind, I’m privileged enough to see the numbers for ’26 and what we’re doing.”
