Williams F1 team boss releases statement

Williams

Williams F1 team boss releases statement

James Vowles is painfully aware his F1 driver duo may soon run out of patience

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 28 July 2026 16:45

Make us your Google favorite

Williams F1 team principal James Vowles has issued a statement as the championship heads into the summer break, addressing the team's future and their driver lineup.

The Grove-based outfit has grown tremendously under Vowles' leadership since 2023, when he made the switch from Mercedes where he worked under Toto Wolff as the Silver Arrow's motorsport strategy director .

A major turning point that signalled a positive trajectory for Vowles' vision of the team came when Williams won the bidding war over Carlos Sainz, a four-time grand prix winner who had been displaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton.

Article continues under video

Two years on from securing Sainz's signature however and the Spaniard's best results came in 2025, prior to the introduction of the new chassis and power unit regulations.

Williams have taken the biggest step back heading into the sport's new era and aside from Aston Martin and new team Cadillac (which is to be expected) they have been the slowest team on track at most race weekends in the first half the campaign.

So much so that Vowles has now admitted the harsh reality that the team must turn their attention to improving in time for 2027.

F1 HEADLINES: FIA confirm another Antonelli punishment as stewards backed over ‘painful’ decision

Vowles: Sainz and Albon deserve more

In a video posted to the official Williams F1 social media accounts, team principal Vowles addressed the squad's tricky start to the new regulations era.

"It's been an incredibly tough first half of the year," began his statement which was released after the Hungarian Grand Prix where both Sainz and team-mate Alex Albon finished out of the points.

"First and foremost a thank you to everyone back at base that has been diligently working tirelessly in order to get ourselves back above water after the difficult start.

"This really has set us back and we're doing what we can across this season but the reality is, what we need to do is make sure we get everything in the right place for 2027 and beyond. That's a tremendous amount of work.

"This winter really exposed everything that isn't in the right place to a level that wasn't expected."

Albon's contract with Williams is expected to run until at least the end of this year and since the Grove-based squad scooped him up from the ashes of his time with Red Bull in 2022, he has proved to be a safe pair of hands for the team.

Sainz on the other hand has a contract that will run out at the end of this season, with the Spaniard set to decide whether to gamble with another year at the struggling squad or not over the coming weeks.

Addressing his driver duo, Vowles then thanked Sainz and Albon for their patience, saying: "Than you and well done. They've been by our side all the way through and stood headstrong despite the difficulties that we're putting them in on track. They're two incredible drivers, they deserve to be fighting for points at the minimum every weekend and we haven't provided that."

"We go into the summer break with frustration but also the desire to make everything right in our future."

When are Williams bringing F1 upgrades?

When done right, upgrades have the power to completely turn around a constructors' season, and the second half of the 2026 championship is shaping up to be a bit of a development battle, especially between teams like Williams and Aston Martin.

Vowles confirmed that his team will be bringing a 'B-spec' car to the Azerbaijan GP at the end of September, though even he admitted it 'won't be enough.'

"Baku's coming, it will be a step but it simply won't be enough to be tangible and put us in the right place this season.

"The reality behind it is that we have the same desire to keep improving and stepping up. We need to get the fundamentals right, build on the foundations that we have in the meantime, fixing the elements that are clearly wrong and just come back swinging in our future."

The 47-year-old then concluded his message with a thank you to Williams' fanbase for their support, reassuring them he did not want to repeat 'incredibly painful' days like the one Williams endured on Sunday in Hungary.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

View full biography

F1 Williams James Vowles