Williams shock: he may not take part in the Barcelona tests

No Barcelona The first possible big twist of the pre-season tests in Barcelona arrives like a bolt from the blue, which will start on January 26th and will represent the first, truly significant test for the new single-seaters: according to what was reported by the RacingNews365 website, in fact, Williams would almost certainly be destined to miss the entire five days of work on Catalan soil (each team, however, has a maximum of only three days available) and not even show up on the track. However, contrary to what was declared by McLaren team principal Andrea Stella in recent days, when the Italian manager announced that the Papaya team would only be on track from the second or third day due to a specific development choice, in the case of Williams this lump sum would be due to unforeseen events that arose in recent times. Problems with crash tests “Sources informed of the situation – reports RacingNews365 – have confirmed that Williams has recently had difficulty passing the FIA’s mandatory crash tests. Based on this, it appears that the decision has been made not to allow the team to participate in the tests.” If this indiscretion were to become reality – and the conditions seem to be there – it would be a very hard blow for James Vowles’ team, which would essentially already lose a third of the time available to work on the track at a time of the year in which clocking up kilometers is even more fundamental than usual, given the revolution of the technical regulations. Without the Barcelona event, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz will have, at best, three days each available with the FW48 in the two tests in Bahrain in February. The precedent of 2019 This possible defection sends Williams back seven years, to a past that the Grove team hoped to have overcome forever: in 2019, in fact, the British team, at the time at the center of a major financial crisis which would then lead to the sale of shares by the Williams family, lost the first two days of testing following serious problems with the construction and design of the FW42, taking to the track on the Barcelona circuit only on the third day of tests.