‘I want Williams back at the front’: James Vowles on reviving the Formula 1 team
It says something about the tenacity and vision of James Vowles that the team principal of Williams Formula 1 describes the sport as being “the healthiest it’s been in 20 years” but still has an extensive menu of changes in his crosshairs.
Vowles has strong views on the cost cap, the prospect of more teams joining the grid, expanding the calendar, this year’s progress at Williams and his own rise from engineer at British American Racing via Honda, Brawn and Mercedes to his current position as kingpin of the historic British outfit.
He also wants to take issue with the idea that the iron grip of Max Verstappen and Red Bull has removed any excitement from the world’s premier motor racing series.
“What I’d argue on the sporting spectacle is that you or I can pick out moments this year that were some of the best racing,” Vowles tells Morning Wire
“The Qatar sprint race was brilliant. That’s what you’re looking for, toe-to-toe right until the last moment. That’s what makes great Formula 1 racing. It’s unpredictable predictability; you can’t tell me what the result will be, but you can tell it’s going to be exciting.”
‘We have a responsibility’ – Vowles on Red Bull’s F1 dominance
Vowles does concede, though, that the level of superiority at the very top of F1 isn’t healthy. Verstappen and Red Bull go into this weekend’s US Grand Prix in Austin having already wrapped up the drivers’ and constructors’ championships with several races to go.
“We can’t touch them any more. It doesn’t matter where they qualify, they’re going to win,” he says. “It was poor for the sport when we had Mercedes dominant, but at least there were two drivers and to a certain extent there was a competition going on. Now there isn’t and I think it is bad.
“What you want is a fight. That’s nothing against Red Bull, they’ve done an exceptional job. But we have a responsibility and we need to maintain the fact that we’re a sporting spectacle, and we’re not there.”
$100m cost cap tweak can help Williams catch up
His solution is a tweak to F1’s cost cap rules. He is happy with the $145m limit on annual operational expenditure and believes it is equalising performance but would like to see more leeway for teams at the back of the grid to upgrade their infrastructure in order to compare with Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.
“We need more than two or three teams being competitive,” he says. Capital expenditure rules have already been relaxed to afford teams an extra $20m; he would like $100m. “I think we can get there in time by demonstrating that the sport improves as a result of this investment. I’m still satisfied because already this is a huge win.”
Andretti and GM should be in F1 – but not yet
F1’s finances also hold the key to Vowles’ stance on new teams joining the grid. Last month it was announced that Andretti and General Motors had been approved by motorsport’s governing body the FIA for entry to the series in 2025. He insists that should only happen when the other teams have stopped losing money.
“I absolutely think there is room for another team but I do not think it is until we have proper financial stability. The 10th team should be a small amount profitable, not digging into its pocket for hundreds of millions. We’re far from that today,” he says.
“That’s not against Andretti or GM, quite the opposite. I think GM are an extraordinary organisation and should be in Formula 1, but we are not in the right position at the moment – at least for Williams.
“My loyalty isn’t to whether we are 10 or 11 teams; my loyalty is to this organisation and 900 jobs. Back in 2020 we had an emergency phone call where we suddenly cut the cost cap down to tens of millions below what it was before because we were about to lose three teams. That was the sport in 2020, which I think everyone has forgotten.
“I’ve lost my job once already on this journey, because eventually when you’re asking someone to foot the bill for $100m, they turn around and say no. What we need is a sport that is commercially viable and financially stable.
“The reason we’re putting so much into it is I want Williams to be back at the front. And it shouldn’t be a coincidence that we were lagging around the back and now starting to move forward. There is an absolute correlation with investment.”
Vowles on sponsorship and Williams’ new Myprotein deal
After years in the doldrums, Williams have turned a corner under Vowles. The 44-year-old from Surrey was poached from Mercedes, where he had begun taking on some of team boss Toto Wolff’s role, and has instantly overseen an improvement from 10th to seventh in the constructors’ standings.
That success is now paying commercial dividends, with new sponsors signing up to feed the virtuous cycle which Vowles says is essential for progress. At this week’s race in Texas the Williams FW45 will bear branding for Myprotein, the nutrition brand owned by Morning Wire’s parent company THG, for the first time.
“Everything in F1 links to everything else. You have a little bit of performance, which generates interest, which generates new business, which generates income; the more income you have, the more I can invest,” he says.
“The level of investment is not a million or tens of millions, it’s hundreds of millions, and when you are talking about that you understand the importance of this whole package working together. You simply can’t do one without the other.”
Reviving Williams and 2024 driver line-up decision
Vowles is equivocal when asked if he is happy with his first year in charge at Williams. “Happy is a tough word to answer and this makes me sound like someone who’s never satisfied, but I’ll be happy when we’re fighting for podiums and wins,” he says. Alex Albon’s seventh place in both Italy and Canada has been their best result of 2023.
He adds: “The fact that we’ve found good chunks of performance and, perhaps more importantly, continued to do so despite upgrades not appearing – that’s a change. The problem with this game is you can never be content with what you’ve done. So, not happy but I’m glad we’re on the right journey.”
Which drivers will still be on the Williams journey next year won’t be decided until after the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi next month. While British driver Albon’s seat is safe, American rookie Logan Sargeant’s fate is less certain, although Vowles says he is keen to keep him on.
“I want Logan to have the maximum amount of time to demonstrate his growth across the season and hit the targets that we’ve set for him,” he says. “We owe it to Logan and the sport to invest in rookie drivers.”
Vowles relishing F1 ‘optimisation’ challenge as team principal
His own debut year as a team principal has been widely praised and he calls it “everything I could have hoped for”. He adds: “It’s a step up without question but that’s the bit that’s really fantastic and I personally enjoy.”
The 2024 season is set to be feature a record 24 races, which Vowles admits may be a ceiling for the series. But, as ever, he is lucid about how to fix it: “Formula 1 is just an optimisation problem. If we can do a better job than other people at it, it’s an opportunity to do better than your peers.”