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Vowles says Williams is reaping rewards from structural changes
Williams’ investment in personnel and restructuring is starting to pay off behind the scenes as well as on the track, according to team principal James Vowles.
The former Mercedes motorsport strategy director has just completed his first season in the role with Williams and led the team to seventh place in the constructors’ championship. While car performance was strong at certain venues, Vowles says it was the arrival of the likes of Pat Fry as chief technical officer that has strengthened the team’s overall position and is leading to progress outside of race results.
“It’s never about one individual,” Vowles said. “I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by a number of skilled leaders -- technicians, engineers, mechanics, marketing -- who all have the same passion and are drawn to the same things I am, which is to bring this team back towards the front. And who will give me every minute of every day in order for us to get there.
“The leadership team that we now have in place are really strong, and we are starting to see dividends from that. But that’s also all the way through the organization we’re seeing that and it takes time for a lot of those elements to move in the way we want to.
“We’ve been misaligned, perhaps, for a number of years and that direction is starting to change; but it’s not about me, it’s about the team.”
After holding off AlphaTauri at the final round in Abu Dhabi, Vowles admits he was not counting on a fight for seventh in the constructors’ championship while focusing on restructuring Williams.
“We also have to be realistic: AlphaTauri were very quick -- as they have been towards the end of the season -- and they were able to get themselves conclusively into the top 10 with [Yuki] Tsunoda. We did our utmost in the race but actually our car got quicker and quicker as the race went on -- which we believe we understand and is no different to the problems we’ve had all year long -- but that first stint really hurt us in terms of where we could fight for in the race itself.
“At the end of the day it was a two-stop for everyone and in the case of AlphaTauri they fell back trying that one-stop, and were very quick at certain points. There were moments where an ill-timed safety car for us would have completely changed what that championship looked like.
“Seventh would have exceeded all expectations at the beginning of the year, and I would say even up to midway through the year. I’m very proud of what we have achieved and absolutely, seventh exceeds expectations. Not met, but exceeds.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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