Author Archives: PressBox

Williams has already moved on to long-term recovery work after a difficult start to its 2026 Formula 1 season, with team principal James Vowles saying the FW48 has been “a flop” and cannot be fully fixed this year. He said the team is focusing on curing the car’s worst handling traits and building a better platform for the future, even as the current car has been blighted by production delays, excess weight and balance problems. Those delays also meant Williams missed private testing in Barcelona at the end of January, and the FW48 arrived late, overweight and off the pace.

The on-track results have reflected those problems. Williams sits ninth in the constructors’ standings with 11 points, has not scored since the Monaco Grand Prix in June and managed only 11 points through the first 11 races. Carlos Sainz called the season an “eye-opener” and “character building,” saying Williams had overachieved in 2025 when it finished fifth and scored podiums, but has fallen farther from the front than expected under the new rules. He said the team still has a lot of work to do to fight at the front again.

Alex Albon said the planned upgrade for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is unlikely to be a quick fix, since much of it was designed long ago and the team is already focused on next year’s car. He said Williams understands the car’s weaknesses and is working hard to address them, but described the FW48 as overweight, unbalanced and frustrating to drive. Sainz said a turnaround is possible, but it will take time, budget-cap money and detailed analysis, while Vowles said the factory work is not being reflected in the results and Williams is already working on its 2027 car.

Red Bull’s 2026 F1 car has developed a narrow operating window, with technical director Pierre Wache saying the RB22 struggles on corner entry stability and with mid-corner understeer, and that small changes in track conditions or minor damage can wipe out its performance. Wache said the car initially lacked load and had steering feel problems early in the season, but those issues were corrected, and Red Bull is still working to understand what is not functioning as it tries to improve the package. He also said it is hard to know whether last year’s late development push hurt the 2026 project.

The team has already made 36 changes this season and introduced upgrades at every race except the Chinese Grand Prix, with the biggest updates arriving in Miami and Austria. Team principal Laurent Mekies said it is probably difficult to imagine keeping that development rhythm, and warned that the 2026 spending cap of $215 million could force Red Bull to slow its pace in the second half of the year as it balances this season’s car against next year’s. The FIA’s ADUO system has rated Red Bull’s engine the fastest, limiting further engine-related upgrades.

Those limitations have left Red Bull more than 200 points behind Mercedes after 11 races, fourth in the constructors’ standings and the only top-four team without a win. Max Verstappen finished second at the Hungarian Grand Prix but said he was unhappy with the car’s oversteer and described the race as one of the hardest of his season. Wache said Verstappen and teammate Isack Hadjar have both been frustrated by the car’s balance, gear ratios and overall feel, and that Red Bull has made progress as it tries to avoid its first winless season since 2015. Verstappen heads into the summer break with his contract break clause active, and attention now turns to how the car performs at Zandvoort.

Reports vary on the timing of Tom McCullough’s exit from Aston Martin, with some saying the performance director is set to leave at the end of the 2026 season and others saying he will fully depart later this year. His departure would end a 13-year spell with the team, which he joined in 2014 when it was Force India and stayed with through the Racing Point and Aston Martin eras.

McCullough became performance director in 2018 and played a key role in some of the team’s best results, including Force India’s back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 2016 and 2017 and Racing Point’s first Formula 1 victory in 2020. He also began his F1 career at Williams in 2002 and had a stint at Sauber before joining the team.

After Aston Martin’s 2025 leadership reshuffle under CEO Andy Cowell, Mike Krack took over McCullough’s trackside duties as chief trackside officer and much of his former Formula 1-side responsibility. McCullough moved to the team’s Performance Technologies arm, where he spent the last 20 months overseeing motorsport projects and other racing programs. Aston Martin is currently led on an interim basis by Adrian Newey as team principal, with Jonathan Wheatley widely expected to take over after leaving Audi.