'Incredibly painful' to miss first test - Williams

Williams say it is "incredibly painful" to have failed to get their car ready in time to take part in the first Formula 1 pre-season test this week.

Team principal James Vowles said on Wednesday the team's decision to withdraw from the test in Spain was "the result of our determination to push the limits of performance under the new regulations".

"It clearly wasn't our plan, and it's incredibly painful," he added.

"If you want to transform at speed, you need to find the pain points and put them right very quickly, which is exactly what we're doing."

Vowles took over at Williams in 2023 and has been leading owner Dorilton Capital's attempt to turn the team back into frontrunners, after years of poor performance and what Vowles has described as underinvestment.

He described the car's failure to pass one of its mandatory crash tests - in the run-up to last week's decision to pull out of the Barcelona test - as "a blip in the grand scheme of things".

The car has now passed all its impact tests, Vowles added, and drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon "stand shoulder to shoulder with me".

"They're clearly, as I am, disappointed," said Vowles.

"They want to be out there testing the car, and whilst they're in our driver and loop simulator in tandem now, to increase that programme, it isn't the same."

Vowles said the main problem was the factory was unable to cope with the demand put on it by the car build process.

"It's more of an output than anything else, of pushing not just the boundaries of design but the boundaries of just simply how many components can be pushed through the factory in a very short space of time," said Vowles.

"The car we've built is about three times more complicated than anything we have put through our business beforehand.

"So, to put that in perspective, it means the amount of load going through our system is about three times what it used to be.

"And we started falling a little bit behind and late on parts. There are compromises you can make as a result of it.

"In addition to that, we have absolutely pushed the boundaries of what we're doing in certain areas. And one of those is in certain corresponding tests that go with it."

However, he said the team were on target to make it to the second pre-season test, which takes place in Bahrain on 11-13 February.

Vowles added: "We could have made Barcelona testing. Simple as that. But in doing so, I would have to turn upside down the impact on spares, components, and updates across Bahrain, [the first race in] Melbourne, and beyond.

"And the evaluation of it was that for running in a cold, damp Barcelona, against doing a (rig) test, against the spare situation, and frankly, there was zero points for running in a shakedown test, we made the decision, and I stand by it, that the right thing to do is to make sure we're turning up at Bahrain, correctly prepared, and prepared in Melbourne as well."

Vowles did not directly answer a question as to whether the car was significantly over the minimum weight limit, saying it was impossible to respond to "murmurings in the media" because it was not possible to know the answer until the car was assembled.

He also said he had "experts and specialists" working with Williams to try to improve their factory operations.

The other teams continued their testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where the new McLaren ran on track for the first time with Lando Norris at the wheel. The test is private and independent media have not been given access.

The world champion completed more than 70 laps and was third fastest behind Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, according to unofficial timing data.

Insiders said the McLaren's pace was impressive for a first day on track, and that its performance appeared to be within the noise of data as among the fastest cars. That amounts to a significant statement at this early stage of the car's life.

Norris said: "It was just nice to be back, nice to see number one on my car. Our first day on track, the first time everyone gets to see the car in one piece. It's literally not been built until this morning.

"Then I get to go out and have some fun and drive it, which turned out to be a decent day. It's really just about figuring things out, going through the manual."

F1 has had a major rule change over the winter, with new regulations for chassis, power-units, tyres and fuel.

Norris said: "It's pretty different. Not a huge step but a bit of a step slower in terms of cornering speeds. Acceleration and straight-line speed, it feels quicker than previous years. You get to 340-350km/h quicker. But then you have a bit more to understand from the battery and the power-unit."

Headline lap times in testing are not representative of actual performance as it is impossible to know the specification in which teams are running their cars.

Rival teams have been impressed by the consistency and reliability of the Mercedes, which has already done more than 300 laps in the course of two days' running so far at this test.

Alpine, who have switched to Mercedes power-units this year after parent company Renault ended its F1 engine programme, have also turned heads.

Alpine, Haas, Racing Bulls and Audi were the other teams to run on Wednesday. Both Audi and Haas caused the session to be stopped during the morning when their cars stopped out on track.

Ferrari and Red Bull did not run on Wednesday, while Mercedes said they were planning to run on Thursday, which would be their final day at this test.

Aston Martin, whose car is not yet ready, said at the start of the week they were intending to start on-track work on Thursday.