Williams to carry new chassis into 2027
"We won’t have any of the disaster we had this winter"
Williams will carry its recently introduced lighter chassis into 2027 as team boss James Vowles tries to avoid a repeat of the disastrous start to this season.
The British team has endured a deeply disappointing 2026 campaign, with its latest upgrade at Baku delivering only limited improvement.
Vowles revealed that the new chassis was designed partly with next season in mind. "The chassis will carry over into next year," he confirmed.
"A lot of it was actually forward investing into making sure that’s right. It’s nice to see the car had ballast on it, so directionally correct, but it’s too late in the season."
Vowles admitted Williams had deliberately sacrificed immediate performance to focus its resources on 2027.
"We haven’t added enough aerodynamic performance," he admitted.
"We’ve focused our cost cap dollars really on just getting the elements right that we need next year. We left quite a bit of performance in the tunnel at home."
The decision should also help Williams avoid the production and preparation problems that derailed its winter.
"I’m confident that we won’t have any of the disaster we had this winter," said Vowles.
"In part, we have to accept, though, that’s not as big a load that we’re putting through the business because the chassis is already here."
Vowles said Williams has also overhauled internal systems and working methods.
"We’ve changed actually quite a bit of the software systems, ways of working," he said.
"We have information we just simply didn’t have one year ago that allows us to make a better call on that."
But he cautioned that those improvements offer no guarantee of a competitive 2027 car.
"We think we’re doing a good job with development in the wind tunnel and across systems, but you don’t know until you turn up at the first race next year."