Williams 2026 Car Launch: Historic team welcome a new era
- Maham Mir
- 1h
- 3 min read
Written by Maham Mir
Yesterday, Williams revealed their livery for the 2026 season at their factory in Grove. The challenger, which has yet to be seen or tested on track, was revealed to employees in-person and fans from around the world online.
The new car, the FW48, features a range of blues, the trademark colour for the team, including its new sponsor of Barclays who feature on the sidepod. The announcement of Barclays as a new sponsor for the team arrives after Santander announced they would not be continuing their partnership with the 9x constructors’ champions.
Alongside the new look to suit the new regulations, Williams are also welcoming a new era for the team as they race as Atlassian Williams F1 Team for the first time in their history. Their name change, which was announced during the 2025 season, “connect the team’s glorious legacy to its bold and ambitious future”.
On the eve of the new season with the first weekend in Australia only a month away, Team Principal James Vowles said: “2026 is the next step on the path back towards the top for Atlassian Williams F1 Team as we enter a new era for the sport, and we are excited about the season ahead”.
For Vowles, who starts his third season at the helm of the team, the excitement of the new regulations does not take away from the magnitude of change that all 11 teams will be forced to adapt to. Discussing the team’s perspective, he stated: “we are not naïve about the challenge ahead of us”.
He also added, with a sense of optimism that has remained constant despite their recent setbacks, that “nobody quite knows what will happen at the first race but we are looking forward to finding out”.
Both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were retained to be the driver line-up for 2025. Their incredibly successful partnership saw Williams finish P5 in the World Constructors’ Championship, a feat that hadn’t been achieved since 2016.
Individually, both drivers set records for the team as well as they both finished in the top 10 of the World Drivers’ Championship for the first time since 2015. With his two podiums in Baku and Qatar, Sainz became the first Willams driver to score multiple podiums in a single season since 2015.
Although Albon struggled in the latter part of the season, his consistency in the first half of the season secured their position in the team rankings. The Thai-British driver not only led a race for the team for the first time since 2015 but also became the first driver to finish in the top eight of the WDC since 2016.
Speaking after the launch of the car, Albon praised the design as it “really stands out – it’s bold, modern and unmistakably Atlassian Williams F1 Team”. He begins his fourth season with the team after joining them in 2022 in his return to F1.
Like his teammate, Sainz was also full of praise for the livery on the car and the design of the car itself as well. Looking to their expectations, the four-time Grand Prix winner said that “the FW48 is a real statement of our intent for 2026”.
The car, with its new livery, is yet to take to the track as the team was unable to join the rest of the grid in Barcelona for the shakedown at the end of January. It was later revealed that a delay in development, and a possible failing of the FIA mandated crash test, was the reason why.
However, since the delay, the team have confirmed that their cars have passed all the mandatory checks and will be on track in Bahrain for pre-season testing. Vowles stated that “there is a loss, but with six days of testing, with our driver-in-loop simulator […] up and running at the end of last year, we are able to mitigate a lot of those”.
On the back of an incredibly successful 2025, and with the 2026 regulations having always been the main focus and target of Vowles, all eyes will be on Williams to see if they can finally make the step forward they have been after.
F1 car launches ahead of the 2026 season will continue with newcomers Cadillac, Aston Martin and reigning world champions McLaren all set to reveal their cars over the next week.
