James Vowles has a lot of catching up still to do in his team principal role as he credits Toto Wolff in imparting knowledge to him.
In his first year at a team principal, Vowles has quietly done a solid job to aide Williams finish seventh in the standings after having ended up 10th in 2022. Even though he joined the squad late, he was still able to have his impact.
Both Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant have also praised the work done by Vowles in a short period of time. Despite the praise, he thinks he is still learning on the job and there is a credit to his former boss Wolff for helping him to understand the intricacies.
“I’ve had the fortune of having people around me that have helped me on this journey and I learned a lot of things off Toto,” said Vowles. “Not all of them used, because some of them are pretty rubbish, to be honest. But I learned a lot of things off Toto on this journey. No, I mean, joking aside, Toto really put me under his wing and taught me a lot of things that I had to know and a lot of holes and gaps I still have.
“And I have a lot of catching up to do relative to my peers that are experienced in doing this. It’s an environment where hopefully I’m showing the world that I’ve earned this place and deserve this place. But I have a tremendous amount to do going forward in order to make sure that we show that Williams is really a team that is a serious team wanting to go back to the front.
“And it’s never the work of one person. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s the work of 1,000 people or 800 people behind the scenes that are doing all the real hard graft that brings you to where you are as an organisation and our job is just to make sure that we’re roughly pointing the right way,” summed up Vowles.
Having joined a team who were bottom and now in an upward run, Vowles admits that the 2023 results were better than what he thought it would be. And he wants the momentum to continue on as the midfield is tightly packed en-route to the top end.
“I think it’s better than what I was hoping for but you have to remember I’m sitting on a sofa alongside people where… we were fighting McLaren in Bahrain and they’re fighting for podiums and wins,” said Vowles. “We have the top four in the Championship all lined-up next to me and that’s the aspiration. To get somewhere there.
“And the reality behind it is that there are teams in 2023, McLaren’s one of them, AlphaTauri is another one of them, that are putting huge performance on the car and starting to fight with the giants. Our aspirations are very clearly to keep moving forward in the way that we have.
“Now, Williams gone from not scoring points to, since the Summer break, we’ve been scoring at near enough most events – Or have the ability to score, so that’s a very different circumstance to where we were 12 months ago. But, as I said, our aspiration is to keep moving up the grid, beyond where we are now. And that’s going to take a lot more effort from where we are,” summed up Vowles.
Here’s F1 2023 teams’ tier order: https://formularapida.net/f1-2023-teams-categorised-in-tier-system-for-their-performances/
Here’s F1 2023 drivers’ tier order: https://formularapida.net/f1-2023-drivers-categorised-in-tier-system-for-their-performances/
Here’s Alexander Albon on thriving in wanting situations
Here’s Alexander Albon on Williams 2023 car having personality
Here’s Alexander Albon crediting Williams’ consistency
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