It’s been nearly 13 years since a Williams driver stood on the top step of a Formula 1 podium.
Pastor Maldonado won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix against the odds but since then, Williams have had to settle for podium finishes and there was even a time when scoring a point was seen as a success.
The 2025 F1 season is unlikely to see either Alex Albon or new teammate Carlos Sainz achieve victory, however, the paddock expects Williams to have improved over the winter break.
Team principal James Vowles was stunned by the state Williams were in when he first arrived at the team from Mercedes.
Williams were using a huge Excel spreadsheet to organise the building of their Formula 1 car which meant parts were getting lost or becoming obsolete before they were even installed.
Vowles admitted that some of Williams’ infrastructure is 20 years out of date, making it virtually impossible to challenge the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.
However, Friday’s FW47 launch at Silverstone was a perfect example of how far Williams have come over the past 12 months and the event was even reminiscent of Mercedes during their most successful period in the sport 10 years ago.
Williams 2025 launch event reminiscent of ‘dominant’ Mercedes F1 team
Journalist Jonathan Noble was talking about the difference between Williams’ 2024 and 2025 launches, with the team willing to publicly run the car at a big event, compared to last year when they did their first shakedown run privately just before testing started in Bahrain.
Reflecting on this, he said: “We were up here yesterday for McLaren [launch] for example, which was a similar kind of a shakedown promotional day.
“But their car didn’t actually run that much in the morning when we were there. And to be honest, we wouldn’t have known if they were behind schedule, ahead of schedule, on schedule, because it was the other side of the track.
“Whereas today, it was live on YouTube, live on their channels, live on the internet. We were all here. It was all to a schedule.
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“So, there was no chance for anything to go wrong at the final seconds. It had to run when they said it was going to run.
“And I think that says an awful lot about the kind of the mindset of the team. It reminds you a little bit about Mercedes at the start of the 2014 hybrid era, when there’d been so much about the preparations for this era, big step, this was the big push.
“They obsessed at that Jerez test to be the first team out of the pit lane and did everything.
“Even though ultimately it mattered little if you were first out the pit lane or third out the pit lane, or 10 minutes late, didn’t matter.
“But as a statement of intent, is about being first out the pit lane. So James Veldt probably said, right, we are running at 9:30 on the dot. This car will be at the garage, do it.
“And they did it. And that’s a big box tick, I think.”
Williams preparing for 2026 but can use this season to their advantage
Every team in the paddock faces a conundrum over the next few months as they determine how to split their focus between improving their 2025 car and moving on next year’s machine.
It’s been suggested that the 2026 regulations are going to create the biggest change in the history of the sport.
Three of Williams’ rivals are reportedly already focusing their resources on 2026, but there’s likely to be some crossover between this year’s and next year’s car.
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It means Vowles will be hoping Williams take steps forward this year, but that the work they’re doing is beneficial to next season.
Williams have spoken about sacrificing 2025, and while that might be an exaggeration, it makes sense to potentially look beyond a campaign where scoring regular points is the goal if 2026 could end up being a lot more successful.
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