James Vowles reveals when Williams should unlock FW48's full potential

James Vowles believes Williams will unlock the full potential of its FW48 around the time of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Williams team principal James Vowles believes the true pace of the FW48 will finally be unlocked around the time of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as the Grove outfit continues its in-season development and weight-reduction programme.

Following a challenging start to the current campaign, Williams has enjoyed a noticeable upturn in form. After the recent point-scoring grands prix, Vowles has admitted that the current iteration of the chassis remains compromised by excess weight. But he is adamant that a clear development plan will gradually reduce the issues.

"There's a little bit more coming again for Barcelona, which is just this weekend. And then beyond there, we have larger steps that will appear in certain races all the way up until past the August break," the team chief explained in The Vowles Verdict.

"Where is the car today? We're still overweight, but it's a significantly reduced number from where we were at the beginning of the season, but not where it needs to be.

"And we will be on the weight limit. It will just be further on in the season from now. And it's painful because what we all do is take the amount of weight, take it off, and look where we'd be on the lap time chart, and we'd be significantly higher up than we are today.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

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"But that is something we have to fix and address quickly. But it's a fact for today. The good part of that is we will get the weight off the car. And when we do, there's good, what I would call free performance that comes with it as a result.

"In terms of where we're moving forward with this car, as I say, there'll be nice steps coming through all the way to the August break and beyond the August break. And I believe that as we go beyond the August break towards the Baku time, you'll see the full potential of this car come forward, and we'll see where we are relative to all of the other teams, but I expect us to keep moving up the field."

Williams currently sits eighth in the constructors' championship with 11 points.