James Vowles spills the beans on Williams factory discussion with F1 approach challenged

Williams team principal James Vowles remains committed to an F1 2026 focus being the right way, with this long-term thinking even questioned at the Williams base.

Vowles departed his role as Mercedes strategy chief to become Williams team boss in time for the 2023 campaign, but after a clear step forward that season, F1 2024 has brought about fresh challenges with the team scoring just four points across the opening 14 rounds.

James Vowles quizzed on Williams plan to ‘compromise’ the present

However, this short-term pain is something which Vowles is fully “comfortable” dealing with, as focus has been moved to the 2026 season, when a new chassis and power unit regulations come into play, bringing with them the prospect for major change in the F1 pecking order.

And Vowles revealed that even back at Williams’ Grove base, he was recently questioned on whether sacrificing present performance is really the right way to go about it. His stance was not moved.

“We have to go back a little bit and here’s why,” he began when speaking to Motorsport.com.

“It’s simply because I’m investing in 2026. I’ve got to do the transformation. To do a transformation means that I’m asking individuals to compromise. That’s okay. I’m completely comfortable with it.

“Even in the factory the other week, there was a question over ‘are we really happy spending this amount of time working on the future, to have to compromise now?’ And I’ll say the same to you, I am 100 per cent sure it is right, because I don’t want to be 7th, 8th or 9th.

“I want ’26 to be good whereas the others around me in the pit lane are focused on ’24 and ’25. Not everyone can work on the ’26 car but so long as we are doing the right thing to close the gap, if the worst was to happen, I’m still okay with it. As long as I can see progress in the systems development for 2026 taking place, I know that I can translate that into a much higher success rate.

“Do I feel more pressure? No. Because I feel really content for this as a multi-year plan about five years. The board knows it, the investors know and I am very comfortable.”

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Williams has secured a major boost for the new regulatory era in acquiring the services of three-time race winner Carlos Sainz, who will join the team from 2025 after his exit from Ferrari.

Vowles admitted he was “surprised” that neither Mercedes nor Red Bull were in the frame for his signature.

When asked by media, including PlanetF1.com, whether he was surprised that neither Red Bull or Mercedes signed Sainz, Vowles replied: “Yes, is the short answer to it, because I rate him as one of the top four drivers, if not, at times the number two driver on the grid. Why wouldn’t you want that in your stable?

“Because my view of things is that, fundamentally, competitors are getting closer and closer.

“So the marginal difference that a driver can make – and I don’t just mean in performance terms – look at Carlos and look at every team he has been in, they have improved significantly. And I get why, after spending the last nine months talking to him at least weekly, if not daily, in truth.

“But what I’ve realised with him is that he is a performance machine, he absolutely will do everything it takes within his power to not transform just himself, but the team around him as well at the same time, and that’s powerful.

“That’s worth more than what he can drive the car at…you move the team forward by the same amount.

“So when you’re in Red Bull’s position where you’ve got a Constructors’ Championship at risk, it’s always a hard decision. But yes, I would have Carlos alongside Max [Verstappen].

“If you were in Mercedes, it’s a hard choice. But I think you know, they’ve swayed between not being competitive, in which case it makes sense to invest in the future, to being very competitive, now it’s a harder decision as to whether you invest in known entities or unknown.

“But that said, if Mercedes have made that decision, they have far more information than I do.

“It’s more than likely that they’re very confident with the direction that they’ll be travelling in, whether that’ll be Max [Verstappen] or Kimi [Antonelli], I’m unsure, but my point is they’re not fools.

“They’ve made this decision sensibly and if Red Bull have decided to do this, again, there’s reasons behind it that I won’t be aware of because they are multiple World Champions, so they don’t make decisions lightly. But I was surprised, to answer your question.”

Williams’ four points places them P9 in the F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship standings .

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