Williams Formula 1 Team are already working on their challenger for 2027 after their FW48 turned out to be a flop, according to team principal James Vowles.

Williams could not maintain the momentum from their fifth place in the 2026 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship where Carlos Sainz delivered two podiums for them in Azerbaijan and Qatar.

Their FW48 was late and missed Barcelona’s private shakedown, and when it finally made its debut, it was overweight and woefully off the pace.

In the Hungarian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso managed to beat both Williams in his upgraded Aston Martin AMR26, which, prior to that weekend, was the worst car on the grid.

That somehow shows the extent of Williams’ plight with Vowles revealing that 2026 is a right-off since there are stuff in the FW48 which can’t be fixed, hence the shift towards next season.

“Lots of changes for next year,” Vowles told Formula 1’s official website in a recent interview. “Next year is already being worked on, because it’s the right thing to be doing at the moment.

“There are some elements of this year’s car we won’t be able to dig out to the level of completeness that I want to. This year is about a couple of really nasty handling characteristics in the car, finding those and fixing them to create the right platform for the future.

“With it will come performance, but it’s really about that focus of just getting some of the basics right to present a strong future,” he maintained.

And despite the current situation Williams is in right now, Vowles is adamant that the future is bright after this setback.

“A lot of what we’re doing right now is all directionally correct,” he said. “Even though it doesn’t all translate to car performance immediately, with what we’re doing to rebuild systems and structures, and focusing on some new ways of working that are going to be quite exciting, it will all come good.

“Our journey is one back to the front. This isn’t going to be a work of six months or a year, but I’m here for it. We’ve got some really great things coming,” Vowles concluded.

One has to wonder whether Sainz or even Dorilton Capital still have the patience to wait for Vowles to sort Williams out…