Nico Rosberg has offered his blunt assessment of Williams’ troubled 2026 campaign, admitting he is “shocked” by how dramatically the once-promising Grove outfit has slipped backwards.
The former Mercedes driver – who began his career in F1 with Williams – watched the British team steadily rebuild its fortunes in recent seasons, with James Vowles’ arrival as team principal helping fuel hopes of a sustained climb towards the midfield’s upper reaches.
Instead, the 2026 regulation reset has exposed serious weaknesses, leaving the team facing an unexpectedly difficult fight to recover its lost ground.
Williams arrived at the season-opening phase already compromised after missing January’s private running in Barcelona, before its pre-season programme in Bahrain revealed another major problem: an overweight car.
The team subsequently brought a substantial upgrade package to Miami, but the results have remained stubbornly elusive. With Carlos Sainz scoring six points and Alex Albon five, Williams currently languishes ninth in the constructors’ championship on just 11 points.
For Rosberg, the problems can be traced back to decisions made before the season had even begun.
An ambitious gamble backfires
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show, the 2016 world champion pointed to Williams’ winter development philosophy as the starting point for its troubles, arguing that the team's attempt to push the boundaries with its new chassis ultimately came at a heavy price.
“Williams just messed up the winter. They messed up the winter developing this new car. They tried to be very ambitious in the way they were building the chassis, tried to go new ways, really innovate,” the retired German driver explained.
That ambition, however, appears to have produced a particularly painful consequence in a formula where every kilogram can have a measurable impact.
“It ended up backfiring, and they've got a lot too much weight on the car. And remember that 10kg of extra weight in this sport is three tenths of a second per lap. So, it's enormous if you're overweight. It's just enormous lap time lost.
“So they're fighting an uphill battle to try and recover from that because they do have the best engine. Remember, they have a Mercedes engine, so there's no excuse there. I'm sure the aerodynamics must also not be in the best place. So, they still need to make a lot of progress there.”
The problem for Williams is that excess weight is not an issue that can simply be erased with a single aerodynamic package.
While the Miami upgrade represented an important attempt to claw back performance, Rosberg's assessment suggests that Vowles and his technical team are dealing with shortcomings extending beyond one troublesome component.
That makes the scale of Williams' reversal all the more concerning to Rosberg.
A 'shocker' for Rosberg
The team had appeared to be moving in the opposite direction over the past few seasons, gradually rebuilding after years near the back of the grid.
Instead of consolidating that progress under the new regulations, it has found itself fighting to avoid slipping further behind.
“Unfortunately, because they were in such a great place in recent years, they were really making progress, and we really thought they were moving towards the top six or top eight again permanently, and now they've dropped back massively, which is a bit of a shocker,” Rosberg admitted.
“It's a tough moment also for James Vowles, who I rate so highly, but he's really got to fight through this struggle now and turn things around and bring the team back towards a positive direction, which is not easy.”
For Vowles, the challenge is therefore no longer simply maintaining Williams' upward trajectory. The former Mercedes strategist must now help engineer a recovery from a car that began the new era carrying a fundamental weight disadvantage, while simultaneously closing an aerodynamic deficit.
Rosberg's “shocker” assessment underlines just how far that leaves Williams from the trajectory many expected it to follow – and how much work now lies ahead at Grove.
Read also: Williams warns Baku upgrades ‘wont be enough for points’
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