James Vowels is not pressing the panic button, despite seeing Williams’ rate of progress slow during the 2024 season. At the end of the last campaign, Vowles had seen the team climb up to seventh in the constructors’ championship and it had amassed 28 points. In doing so, he received high acclaim for the achievement.
However, now 19 months in his role as team principal, at the halfway point of the season and going into the summer break, Williams sits in ninth place with just four points on the board.
It would be easy to suggest the honeymoon period was over and that to an outside eye the team has slipped backwards.
Yet Vowles is keen to set the record straight, pointing out that when he took over he illustrated how there would be some quick wins. But what becomes clear from our discussions is that he is not content with finishing mid-table.
He has higher aspirations to see this famous team again challenging for victories but before they are able to do that, they have to go through some initial pain.
“We have to go back a little bit and here’s why,” he says when we speak at the Hungarian GP.
“It’s simply because I’m investing in 2026. I’ve got to do the transformation. To do a transformation means that I’m asking individuals to compromise. That’s okay. I’m completely comfortable with it.
“Even in the factory the other week, there was a question over ‘are we really happy spending this amount of time working on the future, to have to compromise now?’ and I’ll say the same to you, I am 100 percent sure it is right, because I don’t want to be 7th, 8th or 9th.
“I want ’26 to be good whereas the others around me in the pit lane are focused on ’24 and ’25. Not everyone can work on the ’26 car but so long as we are doing the right thing to close the gap, if the worst was to happen, I’m still okay with it. As long as I can see progress in the systems development for 2026 taking place, I know that I can translate that into a much higher success rate.
“Do I feel more pressure? No. Because I feel really content for this as a multi-year plan about five years. The board knows it, the investors know and I am very comfortable.”
James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing
Photo by: Williams
Vowles received a shock upon taking the role at Williams, finding an outdated model for production and development. He is now in the process of recruiting the right staff to help the team progress, most notably in convincing Carlos Sainz to sign…
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