Williams has confirmed that their 2026 car has successfully passed all mandatory crash tests and that the British team will be ready to take part in official pre-season testing in Bahrain after choosing to skip the Barcelona Shakedown.

Team Principal James Vowles acknowledged that the decision to miss Montmeló “clearly wasn’t our plan” and that it was “incredibly painful,” but necessary to push performance boundaries under the new regulations. “I’m confident in our decision to skip Barcelona and that it was the right call to prepare for the Bahrain and Melbourne tests”, he said.

Williams will now complete a filming day, limited to 200 km, ahead of the first three-day official test in Bahrain. Vowles explained that developing this year’s car, built to sweeping new technical regulations, has been “three times more complicated than anything we’ve done since I joined in 2023.” This complexity caused delays in parts and increased reliance on human effort to push the limits of production and assembly.

The team principal emphasized that, despite the challenges, the team’s structure remains solid, and traditional methods plus extra effort from staff have been key to keeping the project on track. “The priority was to ensure we arrive in Bahrain with a reliable, race-ready car, rather than risk progress in Barcelona,” Vowles added.

With six full days of testing planned in representative conditions in Bahrain and the advantage of a Mercedes power unit and gearbox, Williams is confident in catching up and optimizing its development program ahead of the season opener in Australia from March 6-8.

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