Laurence EdmondsonFeb 4, 2026, 01:04 AM
Close• Joined ESPN in 2009
• An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011
Multiple Authors
Williams has revealed the livery it will race with in 2026 following delays to the production of its new car, the FW48.
Williams was the only team that failed to make the opening preseason test in Barcelona last week, but it plans to hit the ground running at next week’s Bahrain test following an extensive virtual track testing programme.
It had planned to attend the Barcelona test with an interim livery on the FW48 and then invite media to a season launch at its factory this week – but the event was scaled back to a livery launch in front of team members following the delay to the car build.
The new livery features Williams’ traditional blue, which is also the corporate colour of title sponsor Atlassian, as well as white and a lighter blue linked to new banking partner, Barclays.
Williams finished fifth in last year’s constructors’ championship after shifting its focus early to 2026, but team principal James Vowles said the team was under no illusions as to the challenges of breaking into the top four teams in F1.
“We’re not naive about the challenge in front of us, or more so with what’s happened over the last few weeks,” Vowles said, acknowledging the delay in the FW48’s production.
Williams revealed their FW48 livery at the team launch. Atlassian Williams F1 Team
“In my experience, it’s exponentially more difficult to get into the top four [teams] than it is to be fifth, and again more difficult to be third, and again, first. But that is the challenge that I’ve set ourselves as an organisation, and it’s why I joined this team at the same time.
“We don’t expect to be fighting for the championship [in 2026], but we want to establish 2025 as our new base and keep moving forward year on year across the board and across the business.”
Vowles, who spent the vast majority of his career at Mercedes, said it was too early to make predictions about where Williams would end up, but admitted some areas of the new car were still not at the standard of F1’s front runners.
“There is not a person on the grid that really knows what the pecking order is right now in the top five, and that includes with us,” he added.
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“What I can tell you is that there are some bits of the car that are absolutely championship level and there’s other bits where we have a long way to go before we’re there, including just getting the car built and finished as a polished article. That doesn’t lead to podiums or wins.
“Now, we had two [podiums] last year, and what I’ve really indicated is that our baseline is one that I want to build forward from that in every metric capable and possible — be that on lap time or fighting our competitors. It’s just such a murky horizon at the moment that it’s impossible to say whether there’s 10 teams in front of us or four teams or two teams.”
Despite the setback of missing the first test, Vowles insists he is not overly concerned, especially as power unit partner Mercedes clocked up the most mileage of any manufacturer.
“I would much rather have run in Barcelona because it is valuable, but your question was how concerned am I? I’m not concerned at all. You can see it on my face.
“What we did instead as a result of it is quite a strong VTT programme. And the fortune we have is being a Mercedes partner is that, learning what was completed by our competitors, admittedly, is still learning that we can take forward into Bahrain as a result of it. And that’s desperately important.
Carlos Sainz sports his colours for the 2026 season at the Williams team launch. Atlassian Williams F1 Team
“You’re not starting for square one. And I think that is an advantage we have to acknowledge with Mercedes.”
Vowles said lessons learned from the team’s delay have highlighted areas where improvements in Williams’ organisation needed to be made.
“The intention was never to push ourselves to the point of not running in Barcelona – that’s obviously far too far, but it’s exposed some massive sores that we’re going to go and fix now with immediate effect,” he added.
“That’s the positive outcome from it. So the reason why I talk about failure is in a weird, sadistic way, is I love it because it really helps you focus on the core issues and they’re there in your mind every single hour of the day until they are fixed. And that’s what’s been created as a result of it.
“If we just skirted the issue of it, I don’t think we’d be getting to the depth that we are right now. So despite the fact that we’re still deep in making sure that we’re developing the car and moving the car forward and building the car, we’re also currently in full review of what we can learn immediately from what happened last week, last month, and what are the signs that we need to be changing right now in order to make improvements with immediate effect.
“That’s the element for me that is really important.”