The recent confirmation that James Vowles has signed a long-term contract with the Williams Formula 1 team hardly came as a surprise given the upward trajectory of the organisation since he took over some two and a half years ago.
Ten races into the 2025 season and Williams lies fifth in the World Championship, with a relatively comfortable margin over those behind.
Vowles was responsible for the extraordinary coup of getting Carlos Sainz onboard alongside Alex Albon has already paid dividends, even if the Spaniard hasn’t had much luck thus far.
Clearly owners Dorilton have decided that they made the right call in headhunting Vowles, and they want to ensure that he is now in it for the long haul.
However the real focus of the ongoing rebuilding process is on 2026, and that’s what he can perhaps really be judged on.
What the long-term deal also does is put an end to any speculation that Vowles was using Williams as a training ground in preparation for a potential move back to Mercedes as successor to Toto Wolff. That is definitely not on the agenda, and for both sides agreeing to extend his stay in Grove was a no-brainer.
“I feel really at home here,” he says. “I loved my time at Mercedes. Mercedes is a fantastic place, but it just feels like home here. And what I think we have to do, first and foremost, we have to recognise that I wasn’t a TP. It’s the first job I’ve taken in that regard.
“So it’s a large step up, and I had to prove to myself and prove to everyone that I was able to do it. And I think we’re seeing evidence that it’s okay! I’m here to win World Championships, and the next step is the commitment to do we all agree that that’s what we want to be doing, and joined up in that regard?
“And the answer is yes. So it wasn’t even a millisecond. I feel at home. This is where I want to be. This is where I want my career to be, and I can see myself being here for the remainder of my career, that’s how comfortable I am.”
He insists that he didn’t speak to Wolff about his future: “There was no other person I called on the grid, really, when I was in discussion over this.
“Toto is an incredible individual, but he’s also very comfortable where he is at the moment, and wants to be there, I believe, for many, many more years. So that direction parted three years ago. And that’s it.”
For Vowles the promotion to team principal represented a huge step. As head of strategy at Mercedes he obviously carried a lot of responsibility, and at the time he left his role had expanded into other areas of management.
However being put in full charge of a business worth a billion plus by its owners is another level, and he admits that he feels the weight of being responsible for such a big organisation.
“There’s some amazing things about it,” he says. “You pinch yourself that you’re in charge of 1100 people, and that a word that you use, or ten words that you use, can drive the direction of that many individuals.
“You pinch yourself that you’re in charge of a multi-billion dollar company in that regard, because it isn’t something that most people will have access to. But here’s the difference to most other companies, you’re in front of 70 million people every weekend, so you’re adjudicated and judged.
“I think the biggest thing for me is I thought you would have more discomfort on what you’re doing daily, and question what you’re doing daily. And for me personally, I don’t.
“It feels so comfortable that I don’t even think about what the external ramifications are. I think those are the bits that no one can prepare you for. It’s it was described to me once as the view from the top is incredible, but it’s lonely at the same time. And that’s probably the right way of summarising it.”
The team may have a cushion in fifth place at the moment, but there are still 14 races to go, and a few good results for Aston Martin, Haas, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Alpine.
While everyone has turned their focus to 2026 R&D the consensus is that Williams did it earlier than most, and that’s perhaps been reflected by an improvement in form from Sauber and Aston in particular.
In the last couple of races little has gone right for Williams, but Vowles plays down the suggestion that
“In Montreal on Friday, I had a number of messages from other teams going, Jesus, you’re quick! And on Friday we were, there’s just no doubt about it, whatever we did, the cars were basically top six the whole time.
“And yet, we went into Saturday, and it was trouble. Trouble from any perspective. Obviously, in the case of Carlos, his lap was hindered by the red flag that was caused by our own car, by Alex’s bodywork. His lap would have otherwise been okay. Second lap blocked by Hadjar, but his pace was there.
“In the case of Alex, well done to him. But as you can see, getting into Q3 was about where the car is, and we did have an Aston ahead of us, however we want to see it, and we had a number of individuals around us.”
Sunday in Montreal didn’t go to plan, with Albon going over the chicane on the first lap, and eventually retiring with PU overheating. Sainz meanwhile struggled with overheating brakes.
“Now, the start of the race was poor,” says Vowles. “We didn’t capitalise on that with Alex, and we fell backwards. But I think otherwise you would have seen us racing a little bit further up. We were really caught it in the melee, and dropped backwards as a result.
“In the case of Carlos, he was out of position in qualifying at a track where he was held up for a period of time, and finally got back to the point. And the reason why I bring that up is it’s not a slow car in Montreal, but there’s still a big question, why didn’t we get it all right in qualifying?
“So what changed was a little bit of wind, not a lot, but the direction changed of the wind and about seven degrees of track temperature. But what I really enjoyed is the last week where we’ve been digging into, why did we fall back exactly?
“And there’s some really good hints that have come out of it, in terms of, really, it sounds boring, but we didn’t get the tyres working in the right way, simple as that. And it really hurts us in that particular event, that C6 is delicate, and we were on the wrong side of it.”
Vowles insists that Williams isn’t losing out on overall form relative to its main rivals.
“If it was just simply development, on Friday and in some of the race pace that you saw, we would have also fallen back, and we didn’t. We still have a fast package. I think what you’re more seeing is that there are elements of our operation where we’re simply not at the level we need to be there.
“And that includes the reliability we had with Alex in the race. That includes the still not quite there in terms of operating the tyres in the right window in different conditions, because it didn’t change much, but it changed sufficiently in that regard. And even with the bodywork, that’s just simply elements that aren’t at the right level. It hindered both drivers across the weekend.
“Now, that’s one side of things, but the second side of things is has Aston added performance and Sauber added performance? Yes, definitely to that, and it’s made life trickier.
“Now, when we don’t get it right, you fall back into the clutches of being behind some of those cars that you wouldn’t have dreamt of being before.”
Adam Cooper F1 