Is it possible to have fishshell split variables that are in cmd line arguments?

Assume I have a variable $args set like so:

```
$ set args "-a args"

```

Now, given this python program (test.py):

```py
import sys
print(sys.argv)

```

If I run the above in fishshell I get this output:

```
$ python test.py $args
['test.py', '-a args']

```

Notice that the arguments are passed as one argument. When I do the equivalent in bash I get this output:

```
$ python test.py $args
['test.py', '-a', 'params']

```

Is there someway to make fish behave like bash?