How did Williams achieve its first double-points finish with its 500 part Miami upgrade package?
Williams arrived in Miami with the largest upgrade package it has produced in years — around 500 new parts in total, including the first major round of weight saving measures.
6 May 2026
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

In aerodynamic terms, this was effectively the car the team had intended to race in Australia, but delays over the winter meant the Grove outfit only now reached its planned baseline. The result was immediate and tangible. Williams was not suddenly a frontrunner, but it was back in the fight — competitive in the midfield, operationally sharp, and rewarded with its first double points finish of the season as Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon brought the FW48 home in ninth and tenth. It was a weekend that showed both how far Williams has come, and how far it still needs to go.

A car finally in the window: The scale of the upgrade — and the fact that it arrived later than intended — underlined how far behind Williams had fallen in the off season. But Miami marked the first time the team could combine aerodynamic development with weight reduction, even if it still cannot do both at the pace it would like. The FW48 behaved more consistently, allowed both drivers to race in the midfield, and gave Williams the platform to capitalise on a chaotic opening lap. Both Sainz and Albon kept clear of trouble, gained positions early, and executed clean, well timed pit stops that protected their track position.

Team Principal James Vowles highlighted both the achievement and the long road ahead: "Well done to the team. It's great to see the hard work of the last five weeks, and the aero package all adding up, putting us in stronger place than we started the season. It's still a long road, but the positive news is that there's more performance to come throughout the rest of the season," Vowles noted.

‘500 part Miami upgrade package’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28514


Williams achieve F1 2026 milestone with delayed "race one package"
Carlos Sainz hailed the delayed Williams Formula 1 upgrades that powered him to points at the Miami Grand Prix
5 May 2026
Sam Hall, Adam Cooper
Crash.Net

Carlos Sainz expressed his relief after Williams finally fitted its planned ‘race one’ package for the Miami Grand Prix, with both cars scoring points. Williams has endured a difficult start to the 2026 season – the only team to miss the Barcelona shakedown entirely, struggling with debilitating weight issues, and running so late with its development that the first three rounds were contested without the package planned for Australia.

Having struggled for points across those initial races, both Sainz and team-mate Alex Albon were able to finish inside the top 10 on pure pace in Miami, recording a first double-points outcome of the campaign. “We finally put on the upgrade of the car that was supposed to come to race one,” said Sainz. “Because of all the delays we had at the start of the season, now we have finally put the car [on track] that was supposed to be the race one package.”

“Now it’s on the car, it is performing at least at the level of the midfield cars. We know we still have a lot of weight to shed off the car, and when you look at that, it’s positive.” Williams had made no secret that it expected to gain ground in 2026, having languished for much of the last decade towards the foot of the constructors’ table, and after switching development away from its 2025 car at the earliest opportunity in order to focus on the new rules.

"Race one package";

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/109449...ce-one-package


Williams trims weight as Sainz plays down rule tweaks
Williams has taken a step forward in Miami after a difficult start to 2026, with a key part of its upgrade focused simply on reducing weight.
3 MAY 2026
GrandPrix.com

Driver Carlos Sainz said the car is at least more competitive than before the April break. “The good thing is that we were able to recover,” he said. “We were faster than the Haas cars, which we weren't five weeks ago, so it's positive.”

However, as a GPDA director, Sainz also played down the impact of the new regulation tweaks, designed in part to appease the increasingly-critical driver contingent. “Very little has changed. We knew very little would change”, he said. “We'll have to wait until later in the season, or even next year, for the FIA and the teams to dare to make bigger changes.”

Behind the scenes, much of Williams' progress has come from a major weight reduction program. Team boss James Vowles revealed the scale of the effort. “The engineering work they've completed at the factory has removed all the weight from the car plus 10 kilos”, he said. “That's the engineering work that's been completed - it hasn't been delivered to the car because, with the current cost cap, it's no longer efficient to do so.”

‘Williams trims weight’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/willi...le-tweaks.html


Carlos Sainz hails Williams progress after F1 Miami GP
6 May 2026
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Carlos Sainz outlines next step for Williams. With progress now made, Sainz outlined the next steps for Williams in the coming races. outlining one clear target. “Now it’s on the car, it is performing at least at the level of the midfield cars. We know we still have a lot of weight to shed off the car, and when you look at that, it’s positive.”

“Clearly, this weekend, I think we were about sixth fastest, but then Alpine is 20-seconds in front of us here. It would have been 25-30 without a safety car. So to Alpine, there is still a bit gap, and to the front-runners, I cannot even tell you. We need to put our heads down, make this our new baseline, and start improving.”

Williams’ step forward is only the start of its journey to master these new regulations. The knock-on effects of its delays will likely continue for the next few races as it is now behind in the development race.

‘Next step for Williams’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/...r-f1-miami-gp/


James Vowles admits Williams ‘gap is large’ despite 2026 progress push
3 May 2026
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

James Vowles has admitted Williams are facing a steep climb in 2026, despite believing the team is finally heading in the right direction. “A really messy winter and the break gave us an opportunity to reset, take a breath, catch up, form a plan for not just Miami, of which we brought upgrades here, but really what we’re doing now across everywhere up until the end of the season to put ourselves back into a sensible position, fundamentally,” Vowles said.

“I am proud of the work that the team did. Every area was basically working at maximum capacity and that’s despite a difficult winter where people were putting in big, big hours. However, the gap is so large from where we are to the front that I’m sure we’ve made a small step into that, but it is a small step and we need to keep doing that across the number of races in the future in order to make a tangible difference. So positive first session but it is literally just one session and the gaps are still large.”

“For me, it’s as we get to where we finish developing the car, which will be after the August break, that the car is sensibly back to being the top of the midfield, with everything in a sensible position, building on next year’s car. What I enjoy about Williams is there is no resistance to change for greatness. What I mean by that is we will point ourselves in the right direction and follow along with that as long as there is clear ambition and drive to this being at a championship level and former Mercedes engineer Dan Milner brings that.”

‘Williams are facing a steep climb in 2026’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/james-...s-messy-winter


Why it will 'take time' for Williams to cut weight off its heavy 2026 F1 car
2 May 2026
Ed Hardy
Motorsport.com

The FW48 is understood to be 28Kg above the regulated minimum weight of 768Kg, down from 800Kg last year as part of the drastic rule change for this year’s campaign.

But driver Carlos Sainz doesn’t believe Williams will see the benefits of that until later in the year, as Vowles revealed only “a couple of Kilos” has been taken out of the car this weekend.

That’s despite the factory having already engineered the FW48 to the ideal weight, it’s just that it “will take a bit of time” to apply the work to the car with gradual steps at each race.

‘28Kg above the regulated minimum weight’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/w...-car/10817281/

SHOULD HAVE POSTED THURSDAY 8th May 2026, but Motorsport Forum was offline most of the day…