James Vowles: Williams needs to change its approach

The new head of Williams, James Vowles, has worked at Brackley for over 20 years, working with BAR, Honda, Brawn GP and Mercedes and gaining fantastic experience. The Brit believes Williams must change the approach to make progress.

James Vowles: “Now it’s hard to say what exactly Williams did wrong – I haven’t dealt with this matter yet and my contacts have been limited, which is understandable during the transition period.

But it is clear that when a team fails to perform successfully year after year, motivation is lost. First of all, you need to change the way of working, the internal culture and methods. Investors from Dorilton are willing to invest to make the team successful. It is clear that this will take several years.

It is necessary to strengthen the technical headquarters, to give the talents within the team the opportunity to grow and develop, to fulfill their creative potential. I suspect that the environment that previously surrounded them was not the most favorable.

In the course of my career, I had to know failures – many remember this. Before the arrival of Mercedes, there was a period when we did not score a single point in 12 races. And the experience of overcoming this crisis made it clear that the team as a whole must move forward. And I suspect that there is no such unity in the team now.

Negotiations started in December. We quickly came to the conclusion that we were perfect for each other. After several meetings with the board of directors, we realized that our methods, approaches and way of thinking are incredibly similar. It was at this point that I brought Toto into the conversation to inform him of my decision.

Toto’s response was the best I could have hoped for. He responded incredibly well to these changes. Mercedes understands that this is a loss for them. But it is also a win because for Williams and for me it will be a big step forward.”