Formula 1 Racing

Is this the year Williams break free from the back of the grid? · RaceFans

Nicholas Latifi, Williams, Interlagos, 2022

What kind of a Formula 1 team is Williams Racing?

For the last two-and-a-half years, Williams Grand Prix Engineering, formerly owned by its founder family, has been in a state of transition. Its new owners, American investment firm Dorilton, have invested considerable time, effort and funds to rebuild neo-Williams in their own image.

Through swanky promotional films with Hollywood actors or hosting public exhibitions during grand prix weekends to bring the team to the fans, Williams has sought to write a new narrative for itself while still proudly embracing its illustrious heritage.

But while the team appears to have clarity over how it wishes to present itself, it has struggled to find its footing on the race track in that same time.

Rooted to the rear of the grid, sucked into the black hole that tends to hold down any team that falls to the back of the field, Williams would have been disappointed with their 2022 season. With major rules changes offering lower teams their best opportunity to leap up the order, Williams found themselves at the bottom for the fourth time in the last five seasons. Although, in truth, the result was more reflective of the level of competition near the rear of the field than it was of Williams’ own competence as a team.

Williams have been stuck at the back in recent years

So to help turn around the team’s fortunes, who better to try and emulate than the team who has been most dominant over the last decade: Mercedes.

After just two seasons, team principal Jost Capito has been relieved of his position, alongside the team’s technical director Francois Xavier-Demaison. Taking Capito’s place in leading Williams is James Vowles, a key figure of Mercedes’ strategy team whose history at the Brackley factory dates back long before the German manufacturer first claimed it as their home.

Vowles may not have held such a senior role in Formula 1 before, but he has the ringing endorsement of his former team principal Toto Wolff, who could not have been more glowing in his assessment of Vowles’ potential to bring a culture of success back to Williams again.

“James has been around for a long time, he’s seen it all – the intelligent things and the less intelligent things,” Wolff said when Vowles’ move was first announced. “I have no doubt that Williams choosing James is a fantastic move for them.”

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