Vowles: “Some of the most challenging conditions I can remember”
Team Principal reflects on a São Paulo weekend that showcased the team's 'brilliant' execution in the pouring rain
Published
15 NOV 2026
Est. reading time
2 min
São Paulo brought no points for Atlassian Williams F1 Team, but Team Principal James Vowles was full of praise for how the team handled some of the most challenging conditions he can remember.
“Brazil was some of the most challenging conditions I can remember, both in qualifying and the race,” he shared on the latest episode of The Vowles Verdict, presented by Kraken.
“The team, the drivers, the tyre engineers, the strategists did an absolutely brilliant job in qualifying, making sure we really were on the right tyre at the right time and making those calls. Great work by all of them.”
That standard carried into the race. “Really well done to the strategy team, and to everyone involved in that process,” he added.
The drivers also delivered in testing conditions.
“Alex did an absolutely brilliant job getting the FW48 into Q3, and Alex and Carlos had pace. Alex really felt comfortable with the car, which is what you could see, and he was able to put in a stellar performance to put us in that top ten position.
“Carlos had a lap that would have put us through into Q3, but unfortunately, as a result of the red flag that came out, his lap effectively got abandoned.”
JV was clear on what the weekend showed about the car.
“Whilst the car in the wetter conditions can perform, as it dries up we are just not where we need to be and started to fall back relative to our competition, which ultimately meant no points scored in Brazil.”
He went on to explain why the car is more competitive in the wet.
“There were some characteristics baked into the FW48. Now the good news is we’ve highlighted those and done some remedies for the FW50. It’s a mixture of some aerodynamic characteristics and some mechanical characteristics.
“But what it means is that when the grip actually gets reduced, like when you move to extreme wets and intermediate [tyres], the car works in a better way, relatively speaking, which is what you saw.”
With three rounds remaining, the team are using every session to learn.
“What we’re hoping comes out of these next three events is quite a bit of learning. Our focus is still on learning everything we can for 2027, and we will probably go even more extreme on some of the tests we’ve been doing so far.”
Earn WClub points
Latest
Related Tags
Trending
© 2026 The Williams Group, under licence to Williams IP Holdings LLC
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Services LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with company registration number OC456938 and whose registered address is at Station Road, Grove, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 0DQ.
Powered By