James Vowles: It feels like my dream came true

James Vowles, the new head of Williams, is pleased with the good result his team has shown in Bahrain and spoke of the priority tasks facing it in the opening races of the championship and this season as a whole.

James Vowles: “First of all, you have to keep in mind that the car is a kind of prototype, and if you don’t constantly upgrade it, you will fall behind your rivals very quickly.

Given the specifics of this year’s technical regulations, the main task is to understand the specifics of how rubber works, to learn how to maximize the potential of tires and achieve optimal chassis balance.

Secondly, you need to ensure a steady increase in speed, so as usual the main focus should be on aerodynamics, although there are many other areas we are working on.

Thirdly, we should definitely gain experience that will be useful to us in the future. Therefore, during each race weekend you should not only receive up-to-date information, but also draw conclusions that we will use in the next stages of the season and next year.

It is very interesting for me to work in this team, where I was received very warmly, and I was just lucky in that regard. I already feel at home. But at the first Grand Prix you always feel a very strong pressure, so I want to acknowledge the work of Logan Sargent, Williams debutant. He did an excellent job, showing no signs of nervousness all weekend, just increasing the speed from session to session.

If you remember, in qualifying he lost quite a bit to Lando Norris – this is already impressive. I’m sure if he had the chance to do a few more fast laps he would show better results every time.

The same can be said about the race. In the first corner, three cars converged at once, the situation was not easy, but he oriented himself very correctly, continued to fight and gradually moved to higher and higher positions. Considering where Logan started, his 12th result is the maximum that could be achieved.

When we talk about the tasks for the season, we have to be realistic. In Bahrain, not everyone was able to perform at full strength, but we are certainly on a level playing field with the other two teams who are in the last three lines of the Constructors’ Championship. We have reason to be optimistic, as we will gradually add.

I have no doubt that the opponents have the same intentions, but we are sure that we have every opportunity to make progress, and we will take full advantage of them.

In general, now I feel that my dream has come true, because the team opened the scoring with points already earned in the first phase of the season, and this is a well-deserved result. I also have no doubt that in the next races we will have the opportunity to build on this success. Now we know for sure that we can really fight this season, the machine allows it.

Of course the situation will change from track to track, we understand this, but personally I am very happy now.”