What the Williams team principal said
“Next year hierarchies will not be defined from Melbourne. Development and the ability to grow rapidly will be very important. After Melbourne the season will certainly not be over, regardless of where we are. It will be a long road for everyone“. Thus the Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur underlined that 2026 will be a very different year from the last ones in which the balance of power has been quite linear since the beginning of the season.
Next year everything will change at a regulatory level, from the power units to the cars, and according to rumours, Mercedes seems destined to be the point of reference in terms of the engine. Alpine will be a customer of Mercedes, which will no longer supply Aston Martin, which will have exclusive supply from Honda given that Red Bull and Racing Bulls will race with engines made by the new engine division of Milton Keynes.
Williams is clearly growing and fifth place in the Constructors’ standings in 2025 confirms this. Being a Mercedes customer should be a guarantee of competitiveness, but the team principal James Vowles he prefers not to have any illusions: “I don’t think we will see a replay of 2014, where the Mercedes-powered teams actually started ahead of everyone – he said at a press conference in Abu Dhabi – no engine engineer knows where it will actually be in terms of performance when the championship starts. A sort of narrative is being created according to which there will indeed be big differences in terms of performance, but this is speculation. I highly doubt that Ferrari is in troublethey are very good and Honda has also produced an excellent power unit in recent years. For us, a possible top-3 would be above expectations.”
