“The world can’t see” Williams F1’s progress, says Vowles

Williams team principal James Vowles has said “a lot of the really positive bits” that happened to his Formula 1 squad in 2024 were invisible to the public eye.

The Grove-based team endured a tougher season last year, finishing ninth in the constructors’ championship with several substantial crashes for Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto alike damaging the outfit’s results and finances.

Vowles is, however, continuing a process of restructuring the team having joined Williams at the start of 2023. In an interview with Autosport, the Briton pointed out numerous recent high-profile hires which he expects to pay off in the future.

These include chief technical officer Pat Fry and design director Matt Harman from Alpine, chief engineer in computing science Fabrice Moncade from Ferrari, and chief engineer Angelos Tsiaparas from Red Bull, with the latter currently focusing on the development of the upcoming FW48 answering to the new technical regulations for 2026.

“The main thing is this: a lot of the really positive bits the world can’t see,” said Vowles.

“I can walk around the building and just see excellence that has race-winning pedigree all a part of our team now. I can see a change in what we’re doing with infrastructure, culture, people, commercial even – it’s just a different world.

“I’ve always said the journey is 2023, ‘24, ’25 – they’re just progression and the track results won’t necessarily reflect the really big changes going on behind the scenes.

“Do I think ninth fully reflects what we’ve achieved? No. There’s some really good technology gains coming through and there’s some really great things coming in the future. That’s what my focus has been on.

“Does it frustrate me we’re ninth? Yes, absolutely, because I still like to come to the race weekend and get everything out of it, and we haven’t this year.

“We’ve been really hurt by quite significant amounts of attrition. We’ve been hurt by [our] own changing technologies that produced a car that wasn’t on the weight limit and we just haven’t been able to show the world what we can do.

“And then you get the odd races where people can see, ‘Williams is able to get into Q3 pretty much the whole time’, but we’re not delivering it.

“That will always harbour frustration, but it’s overwhelmed by the positive news behind the scenes. The only way the world will really see it is through progress now chunking in 2025, ‘26, ‘27.”

Williams recorded 10 Q3 appearances last season – eight by Albon and two from Colapinto – but just six points finishes. Yet, several other opportunities were missed on Saturdays.

“I’m going to remember we were up there in second in Brazil qualifying before Alex had an accident,” Vowles added. “We were up there in Q3 potential in Las Vegas with Franco before we had an accident. I hate to always bring it back to an accident, but it’s the story of the year.

The damaged car of Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“We have to remember that the pace is there, but we’re not delivering on it as well. And that’s a team. I never put any onus on any one individual. That’s the team that is fundamentally – we’re not quite delivering it all together. And that’s the secret behind it.

“We need everything to move forward together. You need your reliability, your design, your performance, your drivers, your holistic strategy, how it all comes together, to move forward at the right rate.”