Autobayng News Team
Williams team principal James Vowles is braced for a tough weekend in the round immediately after the team’s podium finish in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
However he expects they will be more competitive in the race after that, partly thanks to the progress it has made with the tyre preparation problems which dogged them for much of the season.
Vowles said the team made clear progress with their one-lap pace weakness in Baku, where Carlos Sainz Jnr claimed a shock front row starting position.
“We had a menu of about 10 items just to get the tyres in a better window and I think it worked,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “If we go back to qualifying, Carlos’ lap wasn’t magic to me – it was a good lap, but we were able to get the tyre finally into a good position.”
But Vowles expects a reversal in the team’s competitiveness as the championship moves from a high-speed street circuit to a particularly slow one.
“We were quick in Baku and we’ve been quick in Baku in the past,” he said. “Singapore’s going to be a tough matter, I think that’s just the reality behind it.”
After that, Vowles believes “there’s plenty of other tracks where I think we’ll be there fighting with that car pace” partly because of development work it has done on its car.
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“There was a little update that we sort of snuck in,” he said. “There was a mixture of developments which helped us in around Spa-time. We still had the focus on ’26, we did it in a slightly different way and I’m very proud of how the team went around that.”
He admitted he has been “surprised” by the team’s continued competitiveness, having drawn 29 points clear of Racing Bulls in the fight for fifth in the championship last weekend. “At the beginning of the year we knew it’d be very tight in the midfield, but to still be here now and actually pulling a little bit of – I wouldn’t say quite comfortable yet – but a little breathing room to the others is a great reward for a team that’s really pushing on.”
Although he expects Singapore’s Marina Bay circuit won’t suit the FW47, he has high hopes for many of the following races.
“My prediction, and this could be entirely wrong, is we’re going to struggle in Singapore,” he said. “I think when we go to the max wing, we know that’s not what this car’s optimised for at all.
“For clarity, the wing that we’re running is a year-old wing. We didn’t invest in that downforce level. So that’s why I’m, unfortunately, fairly confident [that] it’s not going to be last [place], but it would not be in the position we are here.
“Going forward from there though, there’s some great tracks for us. Abu Dhabi I think would be very good, Vegas would be good for us, I think Brazil and Mexico would be very good for us as well. So I think there’s a few on the calendar still where we’ll have a good opportunity.”
“I might regret these words but what we’ve said already is this car, if you look all season long, apart from where we haven’t had reliability [and] we haven’t finished races, Alex and Carlos had the opportunity to score points at most events,” he added. “That’s a difference to a year ago so I think there’s more good than bad following and we’ve just got to make sure we keep scoring when the points are available.”
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