Williams boss James Vowles has explained his shock at how “clever” the works Mercedes team has been with its new F1 power unit so far in 2026.
Pre-season speculation that the works Mercedes team would be the dominant force came true in the Australia season-opener after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli converted a one-two on the grid into the same result on Sunday.
Armed with a Mercedes HPP engine, the works team was nearly a second clear of its next best customer, the McLaren of Oscar Piastri in qualifying, whilst Lando Norris finished 51.7s behind Russell in the grand prix.
As for Williams, which is battling with an overweight car, it could only manage 12th and 15th in the race, after which McLaren boss Andrea Stella admitted that for the first time since it rejoined Mercedes HPP as a customer in 2021, it was “on the back foot” in terms of knowledge with its power unit.
Mercedes HPP is supplying four of the 11 teams on the grid in 2026, with Alpine also receiving a customer supply, as Williams boss Vowles, himself a former Mercedes strategy chief, explained how the Brixworth concern was “incredibly fair” to all its teams, but that he was “shocked” and “caught off guard” by the extent of the performance found by the works team.
“What Mercedes are doing on the power unit is something that has caught us off guard, but it took for qualifying [in Australia] for us to really see just how off the pace we are,” Vowles told media, including RacingNews365.
“I’m confident Mercedes has provided us, because they’re very good at this, the ability to do what they’re doing, but I don’t know how to do that right now.
“That’s what we’re working through in the background right now, ‘what have we missed, and how do we get there?’
“It is not an open door from them, because that’s where the performance is found, so it is down to us to try and work around it, but I would say that we have to acknowledge that we, as Williams, do not have the sophistication that they have, and the level of technologies, and that is definitely on us.
“On the contrary, there is some inherent knowledge that they have, which we don’t, and that’s what is down to us to try and figure out.
“Mercedes are incredibly fair to customer teams, and we have everything that they have access to.
“They’ve just been cleverer than we have, and it is our job to get on top of that right now. I’m just a little bit shocked by how much more clever.”
