It’s no secret that Williams Racing F1 Team is set for a huge year in 2025 with its experienced driver line-up and recent influx of financial resources, led by James Vowles.
Vowles, the Team Principal for Williams F1 since January 2023, is determined to show the progress of the team. He seems to believe the public are blind to the positives shown across the last two years.
Williams is making moves, but how?
There have been high-profile hires within the team, including Chief Technical Officer appointed to Pat Fry, and Design Director appointed to Matt Harman. Both came from Alpine last year.
Further hires are in the form of Fabrice Moncade who is now Chief Engineer in computing science who comes from Ferrari, and Red Bull’s Angelos Tsiaparas who is now Chief Engineer for Williams.
They have been focussed on the FW48 and its development since the announcement of new technical regulations for 2026.
It’s clear the team are gaining the correct people to bring Williams F1 back to the top of the grid. A big mission, but doable.
“I can walk around the building and just see excellence that has race-winning pedigree all a part of our team now.
For a team rich with history itself, it’s understandable how Vowles is wanting the team to begin achieving the excellence it once tasted. They have not won a championship since 1997.
“I can see a change in what we’re doing with infrastructure, culture, people, commercial even. It’s just a different world,” Vowles said in an interview with Motorsport.com.
What does it mean for Williams to be ninth?
Truth is, the level Williams have performed doesn’t reflect on the gains made within the team according to James Vowles.
While there have been glimpses of top ten performances the last few years, they haven’t stuck around. Last year, they could only manage P9 in the Constructors’ Championship. It was a very disappointing campaign after the promise of 2023.
“Does it frustrate me we’re ninth? Yes, absolutely, because I still like to come to the race weekend and get everything out of it, and we haven’t this year.
Vowles confirmed that his focus has been on getting everything up to standard. Williams’ factory at Grove and all the equipment was a long way behind his former team Mercedes.
“We’ve been really hurt by quite significant amounts of attrition. We’ve been hurt by our own changing technologies that produced a car that wasn’t on the weight limit, and we just haven’t been able to show the world what we can do,” James Vowles said.
What’s being done to move forward?
It seems to be on the top of Vowles’ mind, a pinching awareness that the team are struggling to deliver solid performances on-track.
The team are painfully aware of improving for the future. They want the Williams name back to where they feel it rightfully belongs. That is at the front of the grid.
“We have to remember that the pace is there, but we’re not delivering on it as well. And that’s a team. I never put any onus on any one individual.”
A team that has a united front is surely a team who are deeply motivated to chase success.
“We need everything to move forward together. You need your reliability, your design, your performances, your drivers, your holistic strategy, how it all comes together, to move forward at the right rate” the Briton concluded.
With this insightful messaging, Williams will look to be a true front runner once. again. There is a lot of work going into the team behind the scenes to ensure success is granted in the long term.
