Williams will miss next week’s opening test of the 2026 Formula 1 season.

The team confirmed in a statement on Friday it will not take part in any of the five days of running at the Circuit de Catalunya beginning on Monday.

Williams’ statement said it has “taken the decision not to participate in next week’s shakedown test in Barcelona following delays in the FW48 programme as we continue to push for maximum car performance.”

“The team will instead conduct a series of tests including a VTT [virtual track testing] programme next week with the 2026 car to prepare for the first official test in Bahrain and the first race of the season in Melbourne.”

The team held an online poll to decide which special livery it would use for pre-season testing. Williams will have two more opportunities to run its car in the livery when testing resumes at Bahrain International Circuit in February.

“We are looking forward to getting on track in the coming weeks and want to thank all our fans for your continued support,” the team added. “There is a lot to look forward to together in 2026.”

Teams are allowed to run on up to three days of next week’s five-day test in Barcelona. McLaren have already indicated they will not take part in the first day of running.

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Several of Williams’ rivals have already run their new cars, including Mercedes and Alpine, who use the same power units. Ferrari are running at Fiorano today and newcomers Cadillac, one of their engine customers, have also run. Racing Bulls have run their Red Bull-Ford powered car at Imola and Audi’s new works entry debuted in Spain two weeks ago.

Williams experienced a similar delay in 2019 when they failed to complete their new car in time for the start of testing. On that occasion they missed two-and-a-half days of running.

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