Williams boss James Vowles reckons overtaking will look a lot completely different within the 2026 Method 1 marketing campaign with extra emphasis on technical ability fairly than driver aids.
The championship is within the means of introducing what’s arguably its largest regulation change in historical past, with overhauls to each the chassis and energy unit.
There might be extra emphasis on electrical vitality, a close to 50-50 cut up with the interior combustion engine, plus lighter and smaller vehicles in a bid to enhance wheel-to-wheel racing and overtaking.
Though drivers had been initially sceptical after simulator exams, with Charles Leclerc saying the cars were “less enjoyable”, Vowles thinks they’re now relishing the problem of mastering the incoming adjustments.
The matter was put to him in the course of the group principal press convention forward of final weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix and Vowles mentioned: “The overtaking might be completely different however it is going to occur, it’s going to simply be another way to what you are used to now.
“The drivers needed to go as soon as and thought this is not nice, then the second time went that is attention-grabbing, then by the third or fourth time, that is race drivers, they’re truly actually into it and there is a very completely different approach of optimising it as an answer they usually can see how the benefit can are available in.
James Vowles, Crew Principal, Williams Racing
Photograph by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network
“So, from that perspective, I believe it is going to be attention-grabbing and I do suppose it is going to enhance overtaking, simply not within the areas you suppose it is going to, that is in all probability the best approach of placing it.”
He added {that a} circuit’s prime overtaking spots could change consequently, utilizing Spa for instance, reckoning there might be much less emphasis on making a go firstly of Kemmel Straight.
It is a consequence of changing DRS with an incoming guide override system that, in impact, is a push-to-pass button that offers the next automobile extra vitality past 280km/h.
Due to the added reliance on electrical vitality, Vowles believes this may favour the drivers extra in tune with their automobile versus merely counting on DRS to overhaul.
“The best way the foundations are in the intervening time, I believe they are going to be busier within the cockpit,” he mentioned. “I do not suppose that is a foul factor, I believe you may get those who come out on prime on account of it, which are those utterly in charge of the automobile and its behaviours after which pondering exterior the field.
“The areas which are completely different are simply merely, in all probability the best approach of placing it, is you’ll be able to nearly fill all the battery in a single braking zone however you’ll be able to deplete it in a single straight. In order that creates a really completely different dynamic to what we now have this yr.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, Williams, Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Photograph by: Andy Hone / LAT Photos through Getty Photos
However how subsequent yr will exactly look continues to be largely unknown with groups nonetheless growing their 2026 vehicles. The primary time they are going to be seen on observe is in pre-season working with three exams scheduled for the beginning of subsequent yr.
There might be a five-day personal check in Barcelona on 26-30 January earlier than two separate three-day runs in Bahrain forward of the Melbourne opener in March.
Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell, who was in the identical session as Vowles, thinks the opening session will subsequently look a lot completely different to that of 2025 as a result of new laws.
“The check at Barcelona, are all of us going to be doing 800 kilometres every day like we did in Bahrain 10 months in the past? No,” he mentioned.
“We will be pulling all the pieces collectively and ensuring that all the pieces works and the automobile will go across the observe and are available again beneath its personal energy.”
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