The Williams team principal, who previously worked at Brackley from the BAR days right through to the Mercedes days, thinks Lewis Hamilton is more naturally gifted than Michael Schumacher and other World Champions he worked with at BAR Honda, Brawn and Mercedes.
During Mercedes’s dominant reign at the start of the hybrid era in 2014 and continuing through to their eighth straight Constructors’ Championship in 2021, Vowles served as Chief Strategist.
After a break of three years for the German, he worked with Schumacher for his 2012 European Grand Prix podium, the only podium for the seven-time World Champion following his return to the sport two years previously.
In an appearance with the High Performance podcast, Vowles discussed how his perspective evolved over his time at Mercedes and expressed the view that Hamilton is the most “naturally talented” driver he has ever worked with. The 39-year-old has won six Drivers’ Championships with Mercedes to date.
“I struggle to find another sport similar to this where it’s a team sport, but it starts by beating your teammate. If you don’t beat your teammate, you’re in trouble – but that’s just one fight. The key behind it is how everyone contributes to this success,” said Vowles.
“With Lewis, he was – and still is today – the most naturally talented driver I’ve worked with including Michael (Schumacher).
“His mentality at the time [when he joined the team] was a brilliant one. It was ‘I’m going to win every race at all costs’ but if you speak to him today, he accepts that it’s the second places and third places that win championships.
“Working with the team on the days that you can’t win the race will give you far more of a reward than pushing everyone away to win a single race out of it.”
Following Michael Schumacher’s way to “squeeze everything out you can,” Nico Rosberg attempted just that in 2016 as he went on to win the Drivers’ Championship that year, before realising “that’s not the life he wanted” to continue with, according to James Vowles.
When Schumacher was a teammate of Rosberg’s for three years at Mercedes, the former Ferrari driver was persuaded out of retirement by Ross Brawn, who was influential in Schumacher’s seven World titles and was then the team leader at Mercedes.
While working with Schumacher, Rosberg won the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, the team’s sole victory under Brawn’s leadership; his elder statesman, Schumacher, retired again at the end of that season.
Vowles admits it still stings not to have helped Schumacher claim his 92nd victory in F1.
The Brit also explained the incredible work ethic the German had and how he was very different behind the scenes compared to his personality in front of the media.
“Michael wasn’t the most skilful in the car, that was Lewis, but he knew how to extract every millisecond out of himself, and every millisecond out of the team.”
“He was a leader that if he said ‘I’m going to go this way’ the team would follow him there. So much so, that both sides of the garage wanted him to do well. One of my regrets of my career is that we didn’t get a win for him, that still hurts me today. He deserved a win.
“The Michael you had facing in front of the media was a very different Michael to what was behind the scenes. And that’s how he did it fundamentally.
“So he would bring everyone on the journey and lead everyone on the journey, he would extract everything, he would squeeze himself for every millisecond he had, he would work as late as he needed to every hour he needed to. That was how he operated.
Following his departure, Lewis Hamilton came in. Rosberg and the British driver fought it out for the Drivers’ Championship highlights in 2014, 2015, and 2016. The first two went the way of the now seven-time World Champion, with Rosberg taking the title in 2016.
Such was the toll and strain on Rosberg to beat Hamilton to one championship, the German driver sensationally quit the sport days after becoming World Champion in 2016.
“Nico learned a tremendous amount from him [Schumacher],” Vowles continued. “It formed the Nico that then became a World Champion ultimately, which is squeeze everything out you can at the cost of everything else.”
Podcast host and former F1 presenter Jake Humphrey chimed in: “So much so you end up having to leave after winning that World title.”
“Exactly that,” replied Vowles. “The sacrifice that was painful to me where you let go of family and friends and loved ones, he did for that year.”
