Vowles: The team didn’t always act correctly

James Vowles, the head of Williams Racing, admitted that the team in Bahrain did not act in the best way, and together with the problems associated with the car, this prevented it from completing the task it had set.

James Vowles: “The Bahrain Grand Prix didn’t go the way we wanted. There were high expectations for the new car and our optimism was reinforced by the information we received during pre-season testing. The data collected was positive, but we now need to take a closer look at what happened on Saturday.

Let’s start with this, and this is the most important, that we encountered some problems that bothered us. Already in the second lap of the race it became clear that the power plant was overheating. On the radio you heard us giving instructions to the drivers to try to drive on the open part of the track and not to stay close to their opponents’ cars.

To cool the engine, we had to stand behind the vehicles in front, so that we were separated from their cars by a certain distance. In addition, we lost some more time because we were forced to turn off some of the systems we normally use during the race.

We couldn’t overtake, we didn’t have the chance to fight normally on track, and as a result we were certainly not at the level we should be in terms of competitiveness.

In addition to powertrain issues, Logan Sargent’s car also had braking problems, which put him at a serious disadvantage.

However, despite all the difficulties, I am confident that the car enabled us to fight for eleventh place. I don’t think we could qualify for points. But we should have been ahead of most of our direct rivals, but we couldn’t.

The team did not always act correctly, so now we have a lot to analyze to cope better in Saudi Arabia than in the first phase of the season. I know we have a good car and that it has potential. Our job now is to try to reveal it.”