{"id":346591,"date":"2025-12-15T11:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/346591\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:09:08","slug":"formula-1-news-williams-aims-to-be-first-with-2026-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/346591\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula 1 News: Williams aims to be first with 2026 car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(GMM) Williams is pushing to have its 2026 Formula 1 car completed significantly earlier than its rivals, as the race against time intensifies ahead of the new rules era.<\/p>\n<p>While the first group test is scheduled for late January in Barcelona, team principal James Vowles says Williams intends to have its entire car ready at the very start of the month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe entire car has to be available for the VTT test bench at the beginning of January,\u201d Vowles told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.auto-motor-und-sport.de\/formel-1\/f1-auto-2026-filmtag-vtt-test-barcelona\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Auto Motor und Sport<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ll probably be the first team to start that early. We don\u2019t want to be caught off guard again, like we were in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The VTT, or Virtual Test Track, allows Williams to run the full car \u2013 including engine, gearbox and suspension \u2013 through simulated race conditions on a static rig, validating reliability before any real track running begins.<\/p>\n<p>According to Vowles, Williams\u2019 first monocoques are already finished, with parts production for the opening races running at full speed. \u201cAfter the VTT tests, we will probably do another filming day before the three test days in Barcelona begin,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The strategy marks a clear break from Williams\u2019 recent past, when late builds often compromised early-season performance.<\/p>\n<p>Vowles accepts there is a trade-off. \u201cWith the few weeks we finish earlier, we might lose a little bit of performance, but we ensure there are no delays in the program. That\u2019s very important for us at Williams right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, following last week\u2019s reports about Audi and Alpine running ahead of the main test, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grada3.com\/2025\/12\/12\/audi-test-barcelona-motor-version-inicial-australia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Grada3<\/a> adds that Audi\u2019s first January running will not yet use the final specification of its 2026 power unit \u2013 with further evolution planned before the season-opening race in Melbourne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(GMM) Williams is pushing to have its 2026 Formula 1 car completed significantly earlier than its rivals, as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-346591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}