How Williams Hired Away Mercedes F1 Strategy Director, James Vowles
Williams Racing’s announcement of hiring James Vowles as the Formula One team’s new team principal shocked many, but it wasn’t because he’s not a qualified candidate.
He’s overseen more than 120 race victories and played a key role in nine constructors’ titles. And for the last 13 years, he’s been with Mercedes in key engineering and strategy roles, working his way to being the motorsport strategy director. Now, Vowles replaces Jost Capito, who stepped down as Williams’s CEO and team boss in December.
Vowles told select media that the conversations between the Grove outfit and himself began “over the last month or so,” adding that it wasn’t a complete “cold call” given the relationships within F1.
“From my perspective, the conversation just started picking up initially because it’s an incredible opportunity and I feel like I can add to it,” he said, per formula1.com. “And really from both sides, both Williams and myself, we concluded that the fit is very, very good after a number of meetings with the board. We actually found a way of working, a way of thinking, a way of approaching things, culture, people, systems, was incredibly aligned.”
Though change is inevitable, Vowles doesn’t see his job move as a “massive leap” given how team principal Toto Wolff and the Silver Arrows shaped his career journey over the last few years. However, it’ll be a different beast than being with one of the top dogs. Williams, though F1’s second-most successful team when looking at constructors’ titles, has struggled in recent years, finishing the 2022 campaign in last place.
“I am one change but clearly one individual won’t make it,” he said. “What is required is a re-strengthening of the technical team, but also allowing those internally that are incredibly good to shine and prosper, and I suspect the environment that they’ve had around isn’t one that would be have been conducive to that for a period of time.
“What I’m doing different is that I am fortunate enough to have known failure on levels that unfortunately many of you have publicly seen. Even prior to Mercedes, there were times that we were lavishing in a very poor position. We didn’t score a point for 12 races.”
Vowels went on to add, “The real gain that you get out of this is that you have to instill a culture that allows everyone to realize that you have to be empowered, you have to grow, you have to move forward as a unit together, and it has to be one collaborative motion.
“And I strongly suspect that they’ve put themselves in a situation where that collaboration isn’t quite as good as it could be or should be, just simply because it has been quite a few years of pain that has cemented it.”
The 43-year-old will begin his tenure on Feb. 20—just a few days before preseason testing begins in Bahrain and 11 days before the first practice session of the season. Williams’s driver line-up will see Alex Albon alongside rookie Logan Sargeant, F1’s first American driver in nearly eight years.
