Unbeknownst to most of us, this time last year was an extremely stressful period for Williams. Its car was late, and significantly overweight. While the latter point was costly in terms of performance, the former proved to be even more damaging when Alex Albon crashed heavily at the Australian Grand Prix and the lack of a spare car meant only one Williams could be entered to race.
2025 has pointedly kicked off in very different fashion.
In a clear message that this is a team moving in the right direction, Williams became the second team to reveal its new car this year, just 24 hours after McLaren had first run at Silverstone. In the same venue, there was a lot more pomp and ceremony as Williams invited partners, guests and fan competition winners for a live show within the pit building.
And taking a leaf out of Ferrari’s book, Williams followed Carlos Sainz’s former team in running the car for the first time in front of the watching world. It was Sainz who got to turn the first laps, with the garage doors rolling up in the studio to reveal him driving past in the pit lane.
After the challenges of early 2024, Albon was delighted to soak up the team’s more confident vibe.
“I think more than anything, it just is a chance to show where the team have been and where we’re getting to,” Alex Albon said, sporting a wooly hat and gloves within a freezing garage next door to the live setup. “I know that it’s a bit showbiz, but I do think that it’s great to see. We’ve pulled in some huge partners. Partners that are not only financial — there’s a technical element to them too and so it’s great to have it.
“Everyone’s cohesive in what they see in Williams and where we want to be. It’s a nice thing, as simple as that. The focus is still on here [at track], that’s for sure. But when I think about it, let’s look at last year. We had a car that we barely made the test. We were overweight. We were struggling around. We just about had two cars ready. This year, we’ve been able to do all of this.
“I know it’s maybe a little bit different, let’s say. But even in just an outlook in a year’s point of view, we’ve really transformed in that sense.”
That transformation was being felt internally, but team principal James Vowles told me he was keen for it to be seen publicly. There was a real desire to prove that the team has made massive changes over the past two years and is starting to see the benefit, to the extent that he insists he had zero nerves about the FW47 running for the first time during a live broadcast, despite the car build only finishing at 4am.
Branding from new title partner Atlassian was prominent, and Vowles was again keen to push the size of the deal, saying: “I’m not going to give you multiples, but if you know your biz, you’ll know that it’s one of the biggest deals, full stop, top 10 in Formula 1. It’ll give you an idea of where those numbers are. It’s enormous.”
But the enormity was in the show of faith in the team to be ready for such an event. The car was more simply described as an evolution — in contrast to McLaren emphasizing its innovative approach 24 hours earlier — but that shouldn’t detract from the commitment to executing to such a self-imposed deadline in front of so many key stakeholders.
That didn’t only rub off well on those watching from the outside, but also on the team’s most high-profile new recruit.
The atmosphere he found within the team has Sainz in an optimistic frame of mind as he climbs in for 2025.
“First impressions, honestly, positive,” said a clearly upbeat Sainz. “Most importantly, I think this is a good show of Williams’ progress. To be bold enough to prepare a test where all of our partners are here, all the media is invited to see the first laps of the car, shows the trust that Williams has in their new tools to produce a car that is going to be here on time, is going to be working well like it did today, without any issues, and I think it’s a good sign.
“It’s a good showing to the outside world, and I think shows the progress that Williams is intending to do, so proud of the first day here.”
While progress was the buzzword, it was also hard to get away from the date of the launch, with the team leaning into the Valentine’s Day atmosphere on the broadcast. It turns out there’s a strong relationship blossoming already between the drivers, too, with Sainz full of praise for the way Albon has welcomed him to Williams.
“With Alex so far, I’ve never seen a guy that is so genuine and so open and so willing to make progress with the team and hear me, tell me about what he knows already about the team, and about the car. Sharing with me, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ and I bounce back and ask him so many other questions.
“So far, honestly, we’re having an incredible relationship, super open, and I think we both know it: If we want to make this team competitive again and fight for wins again, we just need, between him and me, to push in the same direction and maybe to sacrifice a bit of our own driver secrets, or driver things that you would keep for yourself, to maybe this time share them to see if we can have faster progress.”
Given the experience of the pair, Albon hopes Williams can take advantage of any opportunities early in the year while rookie drivers in other teams get up to speed. But the real focus is on 2026 and the chance to make a significant step forward with a new era of car.
To do that, Williams needs to be an efficient, coherent team, and with its FW47 launch it sent out a clear signal of how much it has improved on that front since a year ago.
