2026 Atlassian Williams F1 Team

[SealTheRealDeal]

JV is doing exactly what he was hired to do, protect Dorilton's investment portfolio by talking up the team and not rocking the boat. Newry/Krack and Komatsu can be frank about when things go wrong because Stroll Sr and Gene Haas (neither are perfect team owners by any means) actually have expectations and competitive drive.

JV was not hired to put results on the table? I have never understood this Vowles hype.

I'm sure improving the team is somewhere in his job description, but based on the gap between his hype and his results, and that he's still here unlike the far more honest Jost Capito, I think Dorilton is more concerned about maintaining the perception of forward momentum than it is about actually moving up the grid. But that is admittedly just speculation on my part.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

JV is doing exactly what he was hired to do, protect Dorilton's investment portfolio by talking up the team and not rocking the boat. Newry/Krack and Komatsu can be frank about when things go wrong because Stroll Sr and Gene Haas (neither are perfect team owners by any means) actually have expectations and competitive drive.

JV was not hired to put results on the table? I have never understood this Vowles hype.

I'm sure improving the team is somewhere in his job description, but based on the gap between his hype and his results, and that he's still here unlike the far more honest Jost Capito, I think Dorilton is more concerned about maintaining the perception of forward momentum than it is about actually moving up the grid. But that is admittedly just speculation on my part.

You are talking about improving and forward momentum. Have you noticed that the team has fallen to the back of the grid? That is not good momentum.

According to James, he has emails and "aggressive" programs, but why believe him? The car wasn't supposed to be overweight, and this was supposed to be "the" season.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Sounds like very good momentum at Williams. Sainz got a good lap but Albon is furious.

[GrizzleBoy]

Sounds like very good momentum at Williams. Sainz got a good lap but Albon is furious.

Well, being told to withstand painful performance for years, only to be almost two seconds off the pace is understandably frustrating. Especially when your brand new team mate got multiple podiums last year and you got none despite being well embedded in the team, and now you cant even conceive of.scoring points let alone podiums.

[JPower]

Race pace, at least, for Sainz, was actually pretty decent in the sprint.

Albon is out at sea right now. 5 tenths off of Sainz in both quali sessions. Hasn't changed much from the 2nd half of last year. Looking at the telemetry, they aren't driving the car anything alike.

Albon said he's planning to start from pit lane again.

[SealTheRealDeal]

JV was not hired to put results on the table? I have never understood this Vowles hype.

I'm sure improving the team is somewhere in his job description, but based on the gap between his hype and his results, and that he's still here unlike the far more honest Jost Capito, I think Dorilton is more concerned about maintaining the perception of forward momentum than it is about actually moving up the grid. But that is admittedly just speculation on my part.

You are talking about improving and forward momentum. Have you noticed that the team has fallen to the back of the grid? That is not good momentum.

According to James, he has emails and "aggressive" programs, but why believe him? The car wasn't supposed to be overweight, and this was supposed to be "the" season.

Mate, I'm clearly not defending JV. I'm not sure how you can interpret me saying his (and Dorilton's) priorities are managing perceptions over actual performance, and conclude that I'm saying he's improving the team. Like that's actually a pretty damning statement, and the best I say of him is that he's a symptom of Dorilton's lackluster ownership.

[aberracus]

At this time. I can only say, poor Sainz

[Brahmal]

There's a bit of overreaction going on here. Some, maybe most, of the deficit for Williams is not getting the energy deployment right. Alpine have gone from being the slowest Merc client to Gasly nipping at McLaren heels in one week because of this. Cerebral Sainz is starting to figure it out. Williams have not done a great job, but things could look very different in a couple weeks because this added layer of playing the deployment game is new for everyone (except Russell apparently).

[Enstone]

There's a bit of overreaction going on here. Some, maybe most, of the deficit for Williams is not getting the energy deployment right. Alpine have gone from being the slowest Merc client to Gasly nipping at McLaren heels in one week because of this. Cerebral Sainz is starting to figure it out. Williams have not done a great job, but things could look very different in a couple weeks because this added layer of playing the deployment game is new for everyone (except Russell apparently).

Deployment is one thing, but the car is overweight and both the chassis and aero are still key factors. Williams are lacking in all these areas right now, so even if they improve their understanding of the Mercedes PU, it won’t work miracles !

[Jurgen von Diaz]

There's a bit of overreaction going on here. Some, maybe most, of the deficit for Williams is not getting the energy deployment right. Alpine have gone from being the slowest Merc client to Gasly nipping at McLaren heels in one week because of this. Cerebral Sainz is starting to figure it out. Williams have not done a great job, but things could look very different in a couple weeks because this added layer of playing the deployment game is new for everyone (except Russell apparently).

A little JV mentality here, perhaps. I don't get why for some "this is fine." If you were to ask Sainz, "Is this what you signed for?" he would not be saying, "This is fine." Williams has been by far the slowest Merc client all along this season, not Alpine. And the biggest factor is the overweight issue, which JV denied at first. Williams is supposed to be one of the strongest Merc clients at the moment, not the slowest.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Sainz was devastated after the race on F1TV despite the points. According to him, they are not where they are supposed to be, the 9th fastest team. The team surely has taken a step back.