Williams Racing has been the best of the rest in the midfield battle this year. The team has made some serious improvements since James Vowles took charge, and the new driver pairing of Albon and Sainz represents the team on track.
However, while their car performance has drastically improved, there are still some key factors limiting the car’s full potential. This has led Williams to start looking at drastic measures to improve upon the car’s pace and consistency across the board.
Cooling issues are the root of Williams’ issues in 2025
During several Grand Prix weekends this year, Williams have had to compromise their race or even retire the car due to cooling issues. Team Principal James Vowles has commented on this issue in an interview after the British GP:
“We’ve obviously been hindered by this cooling issue that’s been there for a few races this year, but probably more marked in the Austria retirement when we were running in a very strong position.”
Austrian GP: Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri Amidst Red Bull Woes
“[…] We have solutions in place that mean we can get the car through the race, but it’s at the cost of performance. Ideally, what we’re looking for is containments that allow us to make sure we’re not throwing away anything in terms of performance going forward, and the team is working diligently on that as we speak.”
Looking at Williams’ current position in the Constructors’ Championship, they are going strongly in 5th place with an 18-point lead on Sauber. And while this might seem like a big gap for the midfield, we can’t forget the recent performances by Hulkenberg and Bortoleto, launching the team towards the front of the midfield, which has extremely tight margins this year.
Williams targets performance key upgrades to turn F1 season around in the second half
Looking ahead on the rest of the season, Vowles is positive that Williams can score some good results with the help of subtle changes to the car:
“Now we have a small update coming to Spa, what we really have to do though is just make sure we capitalise on the car performance that we have available to us.”
“There are still points that we can score between here to the end of the year, it’s making sure that we execute the weekends cleanly and take every opportunity that comes towards us. We have a number of really good races coming up for us, and it’s about delivering the result that the car has in it.”
Nico Hulkenberg Breaks the Curse and Claims First F1 Podium After 239 Race Starts
With a competitive midfield comes rare opportunities. Most recently we’ve seen Hulkenberg on the podium, Gasly in P6 and Stroll P7 at Silverstone and Lawson in P6 at Austria.
At the moment, only 30 points separate P5 and P9 in the championship. With 12 races remaining and 4 Sprints to go, there are still lots of points up for grabs. The question is, who will take the most advantage of these scoring opportunities?
