With have just a few days before the Atlassain Williams F1 Teams official 2026 launch followed by the first of the Bahrain test days. In the lead-up to this I have seen more reporting in regards to Team Principal James Vowles been further engaged with F1 media either thorough his video plus face to face questions. Thankfully James has made clear quite a few of the aspects including the teams decision to not go to Barcelona.

With so much of the media all looking back at the history of Williams and the difficulties that the team has faced on previous occasions in regard to have their car ready it was a worthwhile exercise for James to speak to F1 media making clear quite a few inaccuracies in the reporting and also add some more detail.

James made it very clear that the team "could have made it to Barcelona". But he also made it clear that he did not want to see the efforts to achieve this impact on their testing at Bahrain plus also ensuring that the team would be ready with the required the spares and updates required for the opening rounds of the season.

Yes it was not ideal for the team to suffer a bit of a PR failure but it was certainly the case that James was more prepared to suffer this small embarrassment rather than suffer an even more embarrassing one if they were to suffer from major issues in Bahrain.

James would speak of what he thought of the testing carried out at Barcelona and was quite complimentary what he had seen and also his views of the championship season ahead.

James said: "It won’t be a surprise to any of you, but I actually think we’re set up for a good championship."

He also spoke how he felt engine supplier Mercedes had fared during the test. His positive comments must be encouraging for Williams as it is the same engine and gearbox that the team will run in 2026 that was been tested by Mercedes. It will certainly give Williams some valuable data as they prepare for Bahrain.

James added: "I think Mercedes are doing well out of the box, running to the timetable they said they would."

James added further comments regarding Mercedes: "We have the power unit provided by Mercedes, the gearbox provided by Mercedes, so the learning that they’re going through this week in Barcelona will carry over into us, into Bahrain."

"It’s not that I want to be resting on their hard work, but also it is worth stating that that is still an advantage for us that falls out of it, or a disadvantage that’s negated. I’m confident with six days in Bahrain, we will run through the programme that we need to and it’s why we’re on the VTT now."

In respect of the other teams James added: " .. But equally, Red Bull, given they have produced a power unit from scratch, that really cannot be underestimated, they did a brilliant job in the number of laps they completed and then finally, there’s Ferrari, which is exactly the same thing.

"Again, pretty impressive from the get-go, but your times in Barcelona are going to be largely irrelevant. It’s only really in Bahrain that you’ll start to see it."

James spoke of his overall plans going into the Bahrain test days by making it clear that he first and foremost wants to have a car that is ready to go in terms of reliability and be as confident as they can be that the FW48 will get to spend a significant amount of time on track and not in the garage.

James said: "What I wanted to do is to make sure from the outset in Bahrain, we have a reliable car ready to go so that we're not sitting there doing what a lot of individuals and teams are trying their best to do in Barcelona, but not leave the garage. We've got to be there ready to go."

So the Williams team is doing as much as possible to hit the ground running when they get to Bahrain. Using the VTT is certainly a part of this process. Yes it is not entirely the same as running a car on track but it is still a worthwhile thing for the team to be carrying out.

James added: "What you're doing is characterising your cooling system, understanding where that is, running the engine, gearbox, et cetera, under load.

"So you don't have dynamic cornering loads but, for example, you can mimic having two cars in front of you, one car in front of you, no cars in front of you. You can mimic being in Singapore or Bahrain or being in a four degrees, Silverstone weather conditions.

"What you can do, especially in tandem to those running in Barcelona, is run the same code base that they're running on the PU and the gearbox to understand the effects, but in a more controlled environment than they are.

"So you still get learning on various systems, energy, ECU as a result of it. It's an invaluable learning, but it is not the same as running on track - it's just a good use of time."

James also was questioned about how he saw the competiveness of the FW48.

James said: "In terms of the car, it’s impossible to tell, and it’s really not me fobbing the question off.

"It’s simply that, even now, though I’m fortunate enough to see what’s going on in Barcelona, it’s impossible to tell what’s going on there, too.

"I don’t know what targets people have set.

"I think realistically, the car itself is the best I’ve seen us produce here. Those are facts I can put down.

"But that does not mean necessarily… that doesn’t indicate where it is on a timing sheet. That’s what Bahrain and beyond will tell us."

So James has tried to set the record straight and thankfully I feel he has achieved this, even it was a bit late in the day. For me the next big test to his and the Williams F1 Teams reputation will be their performance at the upcoming Bahrain test.