The Formula 1 season may be weeks away, but the 2025 campaign kicked off unofficially on Friday when Williams unveiled the FW47, their challenger for this year, at Silverstone.
Drivers Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr., as well as Team Principal James Vowles, were on hand for the event. The team shared the FW47 in a special one-off livery they will use at this season’s British Grand Prix. Williams, along with the other nine F1 teams, will debut their main livery for the 2025 season at next week’s F1 season launch event at The O2 in London.
Following the unveiling, Sainz put the FW47 through its paces for a few laps at Silverstone:
“Everything went fine, which is good news,” said Sainz. “An install lap for a newly-born car is always a bit tricky, but everything worked as it should and now we’re ready to get into the run plan.”
The debut of the FW47 is not the only big news the team made this week. Earlier this week Williams announced that software company Atlassian was joining as the team’s Title Sponsor on a new “multi-year” deal.
Vowles stressed the significance of that announcement during Friday’s event.
“In the history of Williams this is by far – nothing, anything close to it – the biggest partnership we’ve ever had,” said the Williams boss. “It’s probably one of the biggest, full stop, in the sport or in sports.”
Vowles, who has consistently preached patience at Williams, continued that theme on Friday.
“You’re going to see us progress forwards but what I’ve always said is we’ve put our focus into ’26, ’27 and ’28,” said Vowles. “We’re developing elements that come online as a result of that. We have this year huge infrastructure changes that come online. We had 700 people, over 1,050 today, and we’re not finished yet. There’s a lot more in the pipeline.
“That’s all happening in the background and what I want to make sure that we’re doing is not taking just the short-term, little bit of gain at the cost of long-term. We’re here to make sure we’re back to winning championships. To do that will take a little bit more time. But that’s the investment we’re doing.”
Williams finished ninth in the Constructors’ Championship last season, after finishing a surprising seventh in 2023.
