Vowles: We are angry because the result could have been higher

Immediately after the finish of the Dutch Grand Prix, Williams boss James Vowles recorded a short video commenting on the results of the race at Zandvoort, where Alex Albon scored points for 8th and Logan Sargent retired due to a crash caused by technical problems. .

James Vowles: “I’ve just come back from the pit wall and I’m wearing four layers of clothing. It’s really cold and windy here. We finished the Dutch Grand Prix in 8th place and during a normal race weekend this result could be called simply excellent.

But now we are disappointed. We are angry that Alex spent many laps in sixth place and his own speed. In fact, the cars behind us gradually fell further and further behind. This is a very important achievement that we can all be proud of.

The result is still much higher than what we expected when we were preparing for the race in Zandvoort. But today we made it. At the same time, however, we did not get everything right, and here I have to say about two decisions that were made during the Grand Prix.

In both cases we are talking about the transition to intermediate rubber – the difference between the correct choice of the moment for this transition and the wrong one is very small. In general, few people did everything right.

In the first episode it was necessary to switch to intermediate tires already in the second round, as Red Bull Racing and Sergio Perez did. But if you missed this opportunity it was best to stay on track on slicks, which we did. As you can see, we were ultimately able to partially compensate for the lost time.

Although in the end the result is not as high as it could be, if we pitted at the right time, we really managed to get back into the top ten.

In the second case, we knew that heavy rain was expected, but we still got a bit lucky: while we waited and tried to understand what was happening, several cars flew off the track in turn 1, even though they had only been on the road for 30 minutes. job standing. seconds from us.

We must draw all the necessary conclusions, we must build a system, develop the necessary tools and methods that will enable us to make better decisions in the future. But the main thing is still different – we gained more insight into how to work with the FW45 machine, in which direction to modernize it, so that the team can compete for 7th place in the constructors’ championship.

In addition, Vowles confirmed that even before the accident, the pressure in the hydraulic system on Logan Sargent’s car had dropped, leading to the loss of power steering, and that there was no fault on the driver’s part in what happened.