The big question about the Williams debacle that no one has asked yet

After pulling out of the first test week in Barcelona, Williams has plenty of questions to answer. For instance, everyone wants to know what caused the delay in getting their car ready for the new season, and how they expect to make up the lost ground on the competition. Then there’s also another pressing question that doesn’t seem to have even been asked yet.

With great fanfare, Williams unveiled a special livery for the test days in Barcelona. Drawn up with votes from the team's fans, a press release said: “Williams will start the year with a special, fan-designed livery that will be seen on the car during testing in Barcelona later this month. Fans from 162 countries cast nearly 55,000 votes for the unique design, which is part of Williams’ drive to bring fans closer to the team than ever before.”

The Williams intended for the test in Barcelona - Photo: Williams

One wonders if this one-off design that was due to be used in Barcelona, will ever actually be seen on the car. It seems that with the launch scheduled for February 3, the team would be using the main livery for the test in Bahrain, which it would then run for the remainder of the 2026 season.

A second chance later in the season?

Not being able to bring this Williams car onto the track somewhere after all is undoubtedly not something Alexander Albon’s and Carlos Sainz’s team is worrying about right now. Still, for the fans, it would be nice if at some point this year the test livery did appear on the F1 car.

And in any case, the design then wouldn’t have been created in vain by the supporters of the Williams team—those who had no control over Barcelona being skipped.

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