Williams FW48 car livery revealed for 2026 F1 season when team will aim to make up for Barcelona test miss
Williams unveil revised look that their 2026 car will run in during the new season; FW48 to debut at Bahrain testing after missing Barcelona shakedown; watch every round of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports F1, starting with the Australian Grand Prix on March 6-8
Tuesday 3 February 2026 15:52, UK
Williams have revealed a reworked livery for the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Tuesday's reveal comes after the team failed to have their car ready for the first pre-season testing event of 2026, which took place in Barcelona last week.
The FW48 itself will appear publicly and run for the first time at the first Bahrain test on February 11-13.
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The livery is predominantly the team's traditional blue - officially described as a "vibrant gloss blue" look - but there is a twist for 2026 with the sidepods featuring a lighter blue, as part of a new tie-up with Barclays, and white.
Williams say the colour scheme reflects their "bold intent" into the start of a new era of F1 regulations that they have high hopes for.
By finishing fifth in last year's Constructors' Championship, Williams delivered their best result since 2017, suggesting the team was finally back on a clear upward trajectory under James Vowles' leadership.
The introduction of new chassis and power unit regulations for 2026 offers a chance for further progress, but the team's failure to make it to Barcelona has put them on the back foot.
And although Vowles is confident that the team will make up for the lost ground over the six days of running ahead in Bahrain before the season's first race in Australia, on March 8, he says the "pain" of missing Barcelona will ultimately drive further long-term change.
"I don't believe that after six days of testing (in Bahrain), we will be on the backfoot. A little bit of that is fortune because both the (Mercedes) power unit and gearbox were reliable and the VTT (Virtual Track Test) flushed out a lot of the demons that were buried in the car," he said.
"So we can mitigate missing Barcelona. But this will never happen again because we are going to dig into it properly and make sure we learn from all of the issues, and there is not one but quite a few of them when you start digging.
"That is the process. You have to deal with the failure and you have to let the pain of that failure drive change."
Sainz and Albon hoping Williams ready for another step forward
Williams' driver line-up of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon is widely considered to be the strongest outside of the 'big four' of McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, which has only heightened expectations going into F1's new era.
Sainz, who secured two podiums for the team in the second half of last season, said of his 2026 hopes: "It's one of the main reasons why I moved to this team and why I chose Williams as my future project, because I trusted a lot in the trajectory that we were on in the project going into these new set of regulations.
"I'm hoping that we can do another good step in the right direction."
Team-mate Albon, who starts his fifth season at the team, scored his most points in 2025 since his single full year at Red Bull and added: "I think that the belief that I have is more just from what I see back at Grove.
"I think the changes that James is making at the factory, the culture in the team and the way that it's shifting, it's all going in the right direction and it's what I believe the team needs to be like to become a championship winning team in the future.
"We're still in our growing phase and there's still many years ahead of us but we're on the right path."
When is F1 Bahrain pre-season testing?
The introduction of new regulations means there is a robust schedule of three separate testing events before the start of the 2026 season.
With the closed Barcelona Shakedown now complete, F1 will next head to Bahrain for two 'official' pre-season tests, when media will be present and live timing from the circuit available.
Two three-day Bahrain tests take place on February 11-13 and 18-20.
When is the first F1 race?
The teams then have two weeks to prepare for the opening round of the season, which is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne from March 6-8.
The first practice sessions of the season will take place on Friday March 6, with Qualifying on Saturday March 7 and the opening race on Sunday March 8.
Watch every race of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports, starting with the Australian Grand Prix from March 6-8. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
