Vowles: We were in a position where whatever is left, let’s take it

Vowles left the comfort of Mercedes and took over the hot seat at Williams, a once legendary team past that is now struggling in lower end of the Formula 1 grid, as times seemed to have left them behind.

The Briton has been vocal about the dire state of the team who apparently used excel sheets to track the production of their F1 cars and their parts, and has set on a mission, a long and painful one, to bring Williams back to their former state of glory.

Vowles has delivered a major signing for Williams, locking in the highly-rates Carlos Sainz, a driver who was having talks with Audi F1, Alpine, and previously Mercedes, not to mention some brief discussions with Red Bull.

The Williams boss sees that as a major vote of confidence in his project and also pointed out the his other driver Alex Albon was also sought by other teams but he mentioned to keep him.

Speaking to Formula 1's Official Website, Vowles said: "Alex had a good opportunity, including in a race-winning car – and he’s here.

"And that tells you he buys into the journey we are on, he understands the journey we are on, and for Williams, that was a massive nod of confidence in what we’re doing and where we’re going.

"Williams was previously in a position where whatever is left, let’s take it or let’s take an income for it," he pointed out referring to how the team previously hired their drivers.

"The world has changed, that’s not how you can be competitive [in F1] anymore. That’s understood. As a result of that, what I’m really happy about is that we have had serious conversations with world-class drivers who want to be here – not that have to be here.

"That’s a complete world of difference. You can’t rebuild [the team] without that. You need that strength in order to be competing on the world stage," Vowles insisted.

Williams have been on a hiring spree and Vowles s counting on the people to make the change happen, he added: "Nearly everything will come to people and culture

"Our facilities aren’t at the standard they need to be – but we’ll work on that in the background and ultimately what will happen is people will drive that – ‘this is what I need to be successful and take accountability to all of that at the same time’.

"When I started, we focused on today," Vowles went on as he explained his plan to fix the team. "We’re now focused on ’24, ‘25, ‘26. And by the way, there’s a ‘27 project, too, that we have kicked off. We have really good individuals looking at the future – they are not looking after today anymore.

"It’s why when people ask me, ‘Are you happy or unhappy with ’24?’ I don’t care. I hate to say it – but it doesn’t mean anything for me. I love scoring points in Monaco – but I’m really excited by what we have coming up in ‘25, ‘26 and ‘27 as that’s where we’re investing our time and resources. We have to.

"There’s too much to change and undo to not be in a situation where we’re focused on that today. I’m excited by the future. Are we where I hoped we would be in '24? No.

"I was hoping we would demonstrate to the world that we’re not stepping backwards and doing some steps forwards – but I’m okay with it because I can see the foundation of what we have done is good enough," he maintained.

Vowles insists he is reliant on data to make William successful again, he continued: "I’m going to sound very boring but everything comes down to data.

"When I joined, we didn’t know how long it would take to design or build a front wing. We didn’t know where it was in a system. That will work for one front wing but it won’t work when you’re trying to create 20,000 bits in one go.

"Where do we have to be by ‘26? We must have data wrapped around everything. That means you won’t go over capacity anymore. It might mean we can’t be as big and bold as we want to be, but we’ll build the car to the right spec, standard, the right quality and the right cost.

"We’ll start there and then build out resources around that, including facilities, to add performance on top. That’s where I know we can get to in 2026. Beyond there, facilities, new simulators – all those bits will come online. They are being ordered in the background.

"We’re spending money in the background and they will appear in the next two or three years. Then we have to use them correctly.

"You can’t run before you’re walking and we’re not walking yet," Vowles, who has the backing of Dorilton Capital in this mission, concluded.