James Vowles first came to prominence during his time as the Mercedes F1 team strategist. His voice would be heard over team radio as the final arbitrator when infighting between team mates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton broke out during a Grand Prix.

Famously in Austria 2018, Vowles came over the airwaves apologising to Hamilton who was upset because the team had not pitted him during a virtual safety car period. For F1 observers and fans alike this wad a strange thing to do and later Christian Horner questioned why the Mercedes team strategist was forced to suffer such public humiliation.

“I have never worked with Lewis and I don’t know what makes him tick and what doesn’t, but it a fairly bizarre thing to need to do for somebody to throw themselves under the bus to motivate a driver to go faster from fourth back into the lead,” said the Red Bull boss after the race.

 

 

 

Vowles future was bright at Mercedes

In time Vowles was expected to become Wolff’s number two and potentially team principal should the Austrian decide to hang up his lederhosen. He was promoted from the team’s Chief Strategist to Motorsport Strategy Director in 2019 with additional responsibility for performance analysis, and simulation departments.

Then in a shock announcement in January 2023, Vowles declared he was leaving Mercedes to take up the team principal role vacated at Williams by Jost Capito. The historic British F1 team had been bought by an American investment organisation called Dorilton Capital and Capito had been placed in charge since the summer of 2021.

Williams were last during the only full season under Capito’s leadership, but the 2023 car designed on his watch came seventh in the constructors’ title race. Jost had recruited American driver, Logan Sargeant for that season who reportedly brought a much $30m to the cash strapped team from Grove.

Since the arrival of Vowles, Dorilton decided to make the team competitive by initiating a huge investment programme which was required to replace the twenty year old facilities. The work of commercial director James Bayer was also coming to fruition as the Williams livery began to fill up with new partners like global brands MyProtein, Kraken and Duracell and this year they announced their roster of sponsors was now complete.

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Williams can spend to cost cap

The new commercial strategy implemented by Bower was based on values such as trustworthiness, independence, honesty and bravery which F1 Fan Voice – the series’ official online community – regularly ranks the team as number one or close to the top.

The meteoric rise in funding from these partners together with investment direct from Dorilton now means Williams can spend up to the FIA budget cost cap each year, something Bower revealed to BlackBookMotorsport.com in June this year.

At this seasons Canadian Grand Prix, Vowles launched an offensive to capture the signature of ditched Ferrari string boldly: “Carlos Sainz is Williams number one target.” He also spoke of the “hundreds of millions” being invested in the team to bring their HQ up to a state of the art facility.

Vowles may have overstated the exact nature of this investment given the FIA financial regulations see teams spending restricted in the following ways. There’s an operational cost cap, which is around $145 million, this is the one which is referred to most frequently.

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Vowles granted exemption for extra capital spending

Yet there is another financial restriction placed on the teams and that is in the area of capital spending, which the teams are allowed to improve their facilities for the long term. This is around $36m spread across four years, so on average this is some $6m or $7m over the time frame specified.

The problem is that this locks in the pecking order which the FIA have sought to level up. So now with extra cash in the bank, James Vowles wet on a charm offensive to get Williams’ competitors to agree incremental spending to allow them and other smaller teams to ‘catch up.’

This was eventually agreed despite Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur describing it as setting an “extremely dangerous” precedent. The amount is between $6m and $20m a year depending on the facilities in question at each team.

Williams in fact secured agreement for top amount of $20m to be added to their annual capital spending, which Vowles described as “not perhaps the hundred [million] I was looking for, but a good step in the right direction.”

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“They have become worse” under Vowles

With Sainz now secured on a multi-year deal alongside the highly rated Alex Albon, Williams have closed the chapter which saw them need ‘pay-per-drive’ competitor such as Nicholas Latifi and Logan Sargeant. As Haas F1 proved when ditching Russian Niki axe-in and Mick Schumacher, this makes a significant difference to the team’s performance.

Yet ex-F1 driver Marc Surer believes Williams are worse under Vowles than before. He credits their 2022 P7 as the work of Jost Capito.

In an interview on Formel1.de YouTube channel, the Swiss F1 commentator says: “Why should they [Williams] suddenly get so much better now? They have become worse this year, you must not forget that!”

“I have often said that James Vowles is simply over-rated. Jost Capito built a car [for 2023] with his people. James Vowles came to Williams, took the car, and they drove fully into the points. All the praises went to James Vowles, not the one who built the car. Now, the car is too heavy and too slow.”

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F1 driver skeptical of Williams future

Even with the signing of three time Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz, Surer is skeptical over how the team will perform going forward. “I would doubt next year will be any better with Williams. Points yes, but getting involved in the front? I don’t think so,” he concluded.

Surer’s career in F1 lasted from 1979-1986 and he drove mostly for smaller teams like Williams. Over 82 Grand Prix starts the Swiss driver failed to claim a race win or even a podium yet in 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modelling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Surer was ranked the 17th best Formula One driver of all time.

Despite this negative assessment of Vowles by Surer who commentates for Sky Germany, it was James’ vision for the future of the Williams team which won Sainz over. Remember, Carlos rejected the offer to drive for two works F1 teams [Audi & Alpine] to go to the small independent Williams.

In F1 money makes the world go round and the funding Williams now have secured, together with the organisational restructure, will undoubtably over time see them move closer to the front of the field.

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Verstappen reveals his future – but its not Red Bull to 2028

Max Verstappen is heading towards his fourth consecutive Formula One world championship. Despite winning just three races in the last nine, the Dutch driver sits 76 points ahead of Lando Norris and with ten Grand Prix remaining this season, its unlikely the McLaren driver can bridge the gap.

Mercedes run of form winning three of the last four Grand Prix halted McLaren’s surge somewhat and with Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes all vying for top spot, they take points from each other week in and out, leaving Max even without a win way ahead of the class of 2024.

Max has seven wins, Hamilton now has two and the other five have been shared between Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and George Russell. With the points system currently heavily weighted towards the winner it would need another driver to win most of the remaining Grand Prix to be in with a shout of the title… READ MORE