Atlassian Williams Racing became the second team to reveal its 2025 F1 car on Friday, February 14 in a shakedown with the special one-off livery as Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz took to the track.
The team spoke in a media session after launching the Williams F1 FW47 challenger on home soil at Silverstone. Earlier in the live stream, team principal James Vowles talked about the big infrastructure developments coming at Williams this season.
Alex Albon stated that the results of these improvements will become visible in the Williams’ F1 journey from 2026 onward.
“I think they will only help [in] 2026. But depending on what areas, I don’t think a lot of them will be optimised by 2026. So I think that being totally realistic, it’s beyond then.
“That’s not to say I don’t think we should be making a good step next year. It feels weird to be talking about next year in early February. But yes, I don’t think we’re not going to go into 2026 expecting to be at the back.”
Growth improved the team morale
Alongside the upcoming changes at Williams Racing, the team has achieved significant progress so far. From its machinery to team dynamics and investing partners, it is in an unrecognisable form compared to the previous years. Albon expressed that their growth elevated the morale of the team altogether.
While last year was not great in terms of results, progress was made in other areas.
“Yeah, I am [over the moon]. I obviously joined this team when morale was maybe on the lower side. The investment was there, but we were going through a transitioning phase.
“Of course, you know, it’s a shame, I don’t think it’s fair to say the results last year weren’t where we wanted them to be.”
Albon on the new team culture and arrival of Sainz
With the addition of race-winner Carlos Sainz to the line-up this season, Williams’ dynamism has taken another form of acceleration with the experience the Spaniard brought to the team, along with the investors and partners. Albon noted that with the arrival of his teammate, Williams’ culture and atmosphere regenerated itself.
“But seeing all the work being done, and seeing the changes being made, and honestly, I don’t know if any of you have been able to visit growth in the last year, you will see quite a big difference in just the way people are. I think culturally, it’s quite contagious here right now in a good way.
“There’s just an open-mindedness approach, which I don’t think was always the case when I first joined. You can see that also, just as an example. And now that Carlos has joined, seeing the team being reactive to that is great.
“I think it’s been really exciting to be a part of this journey. It’s why I’m here.”
