Williams team principal James Vowles has played down speculation that Mercedes will have the power unit to beat in 2026.<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old insisted the idea was planted by a rival manufacturer in an attempt to make late changes to the regulations.<\/p>\n
F1’s power units are undergoing their biggest change since the turbo-hybrid units were first introduced in 2014.<\/p>\n
The electrification of the units will be increased, while the MGU-H component has been removed.<\/p>\n
Mercedes dominated at the head of the field in 2014 when it produced the most efficient power unit, and paddock speculation has suggested it may be a similar case this time around.<\/p>\n
However, Vowles poured cold water over the claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one knows, no one of any engine manufacturer knows where they’re going to fall out,\u201d Vowles told media including RacingNews365.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the speculation that appeared was one team and PU manufacturer trying to create a narrative to get some changes, to be completely clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut no one really knows. I strongly doubt Ferrari has done a poor job, they are very good at getting this right year on year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonda this year has produced a benchmark engine. So I don’t think it’s going to be like 2014 where you have such a runaway that you can have all the teams carried with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMercedes, we’ve been working specifically on 2026 with them since early 2024 when we signed the agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I can say is they’ve done good preparation. Let’s see what that translates to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, who run Mercedes power units, enter the year looking to improve on its fifth-place result in the standings this year – its best finish since 2017.<\/p>\n
However, Vowles conceded that breaching the top three is wishful thinking for the Grove-based squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of our aspirations, top three again would be above what we’re expecting,\u201d Vowles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made the comment and I mean it – stepping forward year on year is a sensible goal for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cTop three would be aspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams team principal James Vowles has played down speculation that Mercedes will have the power unit to beat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":["post-361820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}