Vowles credited for 'new and refreshed' spirit at Williams

James Vowles may only have joined Williams at the beginning of the season, but he's been credited for transforming the atmosphere at Grove and giving the team a clear plan for the future.

Vowles took over as team principal in January, having previously been strategy director at Mercedes working alongside team principal Toto Wolff and engineering director Andrew Shovlin, contributing to eight consecutive constructors titles.

Vowles replaced Jost Capito, who departed the squad at the end of 2022 along with technical director FX Demaison after Williams finished the year in last place on just eight points.

The team is already ahead of that just ten races into the current campaign, going into the summer break in a dizzying seventh with 11 points putting them ahead of Haas, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri.

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Williams' head of vehicle performance, Dave Robson credited Vowles with turning things around and giving the squad a new sense of purpose and energy in just a few short months.

“James has brought a wealth of experience and knowledge," Robson said last month. “And also I think a whole new approach which is really starting to spread around the factory."

Robson said that this had dovetailed with the growth of lead driver Alex Albon. "It’s probably gone hand in hand with Alex maturing and becoming quite calm and consistent, level-headed, and James brings something similar.

"He obviously also brings clear knowledge of what Andrew and his colleagues have got at Mercedes," he added. "So it really feels like we've now got a clear plan for the next few years.

"That's very much rooted in recent top-level experience," he explained. "Now we're just going to put that into action. But in the short term the whole atmosphere is new, and it's refreshed.

"It's helped by some of the on-track results, but I think that whole thing is a little bit chicken and egg, and James has definitely played his part in that."

Vowles' recent conspicuous success is in contrast to his early says in F1 where rejection slips were the order of the day before working with Honda, BAR and Brawn GP in engineering and strategy roles.

Brawn won the 2009 championship with Jenson Button and was bought up by Mercedes, where Vowles remained until this year. Throughout this time he worked closely with Shovlin, who said he had "good memories" of the partnership.

"I was sat next to James on the pit wall for 20 years or whatever it was,” Shovlin commented. "He's left us with a really impressive strategy group.

"But his ambitions were always more than just doing the strategy," Shovlin acknowledged. "James was trying to put the group in place that could follow him," with his old position now filled by Rosie Wait

"It's great to see him enjoying the role at Williams and having a positive effect there," Shovlin added. "We knew that he would be a loss to our team, but it's nice that he’s enjoying success.”

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