Williams team boss advocates more F1 race weekends – James Vowles is enjoying the limelight as his leadership is bringing the iconic British racing marque back into the limelight in Forula One. Despite being one of the first outfits to abandon this seasons in car development to focus on 2026, Williams are having the year of their recent lives.
The Grove based team have collected 102 points this year and with a quarter of the racing calendar remaining in 2025 this tally astonishingly represents more than the cumulative points scored over the last four F1 seasons.
Yet Williams F1 remain in a rebuild mode after years of under investment in their production facility which is using some 20 year old technology. Whilst the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull use complies databases to track the 20,000 components required to build an F1 car, Vowles reveals his team were using spreadsheets when he joined in 2023.
Williams boss disagrees with guru Newey
His year’s of experience at the all conquering Mercedes team means James Vowles knows exactly what is required to reach the top in F1. He is also becoming a bit of a media darling in the paddock as he often shares his candid views regardless of the perceived wisdom of others.
The former head of Mercedes strategy pulled of a coup detente last year, when against all odds he signed outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz ahead of two works outfits in Alpine and Suaver – soon to be Audi.
Vowles has contradicted revered F1 car designer Adrian Newey who claimed F1 teams are losing staff members to other series and organisations due to the capped wages on offer. Sparking to Auto, Motor und Sport the former Red Bull guru claimed university graduates were failing to apply for this reason.
Vowles says Leclerc is wrong
Ahead of the F1-75 extravaganza launch in London this year, the Williams boss explained to assembled media why Newey was wrong. “It’s down to you how you use the cost cap efficiently. You pay the individuals you want to have by your side a tremendous amount, and each team has very different models.
“What we have in ours is, I strongly believe in future generations, we invest good and sensible finance into graduates and the generations below that, and then training schemes that run through it,” he revealed.
Charles Leclerc was critical earlier this year over the excessive energy management he was experimenting driving the simulated new 2026 cars. “Let’s say it’s not the most enjoyable race car I’ve driven so far, “ adding its “probably less enjoyable for drivers to drive.”
Leclerc admitted the new technology would be mentally challenging for the drivers, but concluded, ”but do I enjoy it? Probably not.” Yet the Williams boss dismissed the Ferrari driver’s negativity stating, “I think the formula now is quite a good racing series, for what it’s worth. I think it’s probably fair to say we’re advanced relative to other teams in terms of what we’re doing and ‘it gets better,’ is my comment to Charles.”
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Williams boss calls out Perez
James also took issue with Sergio Perez’s comments when the Mexican was announced as a driver for the new Cadillac team in 2026. The former team mate of Max Verstappen told ESPN in a press conference, “The goal is to arrive ready as a team for the first race,” adding, “I’m sure we’re going to surprise and that we can win points early in the season.”
Vowles believes the converse is true and the new team Cadillac will struggle during their opening season to get up to speed with the pace of change in F1.” I think Cadillac… is a strong brand and a good brand to bring in.” But given the competitive nature of F1 presently, “As a result, they’re going to struggle, though. That’s my belief of it. It is hard now in modern-day Formula 1 to be competitive.”
There is pressure behind the scenes for more competitive F1 action on track, but the teams almost as one have resisted the overtures of F1 to deliver this. Stefano Domenicalli wants to bring more Sprints onto the schedule and even shorted some Grand Prix due to the Gen Z lack of attention span.
Quadruple work d champion Max Verstappen was asked about his view on more competitive on track action for F1 and as always he was honest but dismissive of the proposal. “From my side I’ve said it before — this is not sustainable. I love racing a lot and I do it a lot also outside of Formula One.
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James Vowles calls for 2 day F1 weekends
Veteran racer Fernando Alonso agrees with Verstappen stating: “When I started we had 16 races, then it was 18 at some point, and then I think when Liberty [Media] came it was like a message that we have 20 one season and that was absolutely the limit, 20 races,” said the Aston Martin driver. “And now we are up to 24 and this is not sustainable for the future.”
James Vowles has an interesting take on how Formula One spends its time on track. For sixteen race weekends each season, the Friday sessions are mostly for the engineers to gather data and do the geeky stuff they do. The Williams boss has a radical solution for these less interesting sessions for the fans, calling for a two day weekend by using some of the days claimed back to out on extra F1 events.
“What we see on sprint race weekends is the numbers go up, the audiences go up,” he said. “So it is generally a hit. I’m more someone who would like to debate whether we go to a two-day weekend, Saturday and Sunday.” By killing the Friday sessions, this would make the weekend less predictable and level the playing field as the bigger teams have less time to understand the requirements for their car setup.
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More F1 weekends then possible
This also would hand back 24 days a year, which Vowles believes could be used in a far more productive fashion for the TV broadcasters and the sponsors. “Six sprints, for me, is about the right number,” says Vowles given the one third Grand Prix distance races are often processional.
“We’re sports and we’re entertainment, and we do this for the fans, so variability is not a bad thing kicking into it. It has to work hand in hand with promoters, and that might be a different fee structure,” he suggested.
The 24 days saved a year could then allow more Grand Prix weekends than the current maximum agreed 24. “But if you had two more grands prix, I think that will significantly outweigh the impact of a Friday missing, just on the economics of it,” the Williams team boss posited.
Formula One may be the fastest moving motorsport series on the planet, but at times its tunnel vision and limited thinking leads to years of stagnation and little change. Adding another two weekends to the calendar will generate more cash to the teams and the sport and give the teams 21 days of extra relief from attending the F1 events aro9und the world. James Vowles is an out the box thinker and F1 needs more of these characters to take the sport forward.
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Red Bull Racing will facilitate a return to Formula One of one of the sport’s most successful engine manufacturers in Ford next season. Despite not competing seriously in F1 more more than a quarter of a century, Ford remain third in the list of Gand Prix wins for an engine manufacturer.
Ferrari, the only team to have competed in F1 from the inaugural 1950 season have 249 wins on Sunday and Mercedes who have mostly been en engine supplier over the years are second with 236 victories.
Ford with their 176 Grand Prix wins have a formidable history in F1, their DFV engine developed for Colin Chapman and Lotus was in fact produced by British firm Cosworth Ford sponsored and paid for the DFV and for many years it was the dominant engine in Formula One….. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
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