Vowles: I have made it clear to everyone that I take responsibility.

Williams remains the only team still in no hurry to at least show images of its new car, and there is an explanation for that.

If Williams had already managed to carry out the first run-in of its new products at the Silverstone circuit in recent years, in mid-February, then the FW46 will make its first appearance on the track in Bahrain in 2024. the day before the start of pre-season testing. And at the presentation on February 5, the team only showed the livery of the future car.

However, Grove has everything planned this way, and these plans have been drawn up a long time ago, as Williams started developing the 2024 chassis last April. According to James Vowles, the team leader, the process became so extensive over time because it was necessary to make very significant adjustments to the team’s usual approach to creating a car.

“With the FW46 we literally had to push everything to the limit,” Vowles told The Race. – We have changed the technologies used to create the chassis, some other technological processes have also become different compared to how the team acted before. These changes required enormous, simply colossal, efforts from the entire organization. In some cases we have even exceeded our capabilities, even though we did not strive to do so.

During such changes, when we have to break the usual technological cycles, huge risks are inevitable, but we get the opportunity to achieve a different level of results. This is exactly what we did, but you will see the car quite late, already in Bahrain.

We could have done a first run-in at Silverstone, but we didn’t, partly because the car is being worked on until the last possible opportunity, partly because I think it would be advisable to test it on a virtual track for the time being, and then we will immediately start testing in Bahrain.

I made it clear to the entire team that I would take responsibility if anything went wrong. I don’t want anyone to be afraid of the possibility of failure, I don’t want anyone to be held back by the fear of leaving their comfort zone. I said to everyone: the decisive moment has come, you have my support, and now you have to start all over again, go back to basics and try to do everything as it should be.

As is too often the case, it is too easy to do what you are comfortable with, but at the same time, if you manage to increase the speed of the car, it is by a very small percentage. Yes, we have reached the limit of our capabilities and our car will show up very late, no doubt about that. I’m willing to admit that there were times when I went several days without sleep because I was responsible for a team of 1,000 people on my shoulders. But I am confident that what we are doing is the right approach that will bear fruit in the future.”