Williams team boss James Vowles says that the Williams Formula 1 squad is lacking “basics” compared to rival outfits.
Vowles joined Williams last month following a lengthy career at the Brackley-based squad that currently competes as Mercedes.
The Briton was an integral part of Mercedes’ dominance in the first years of the turbo-hybrid era, where he contributed to eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships.
Speaking about a “rude awakening” when he arrived at Williams, Vowles cited a lack of software systems at the team that work in tangent with car parts.
“It’s a mixture of rude awakening and how impressed I am,” Vowles said.
“There were some very much what I would consider basics in other teams and have been for almost 15 years.
“Especially around, for example, software systems that allow you to properly understand where all your parts are, simply doesn’t exist [at Williams].”
However, Vowles says that he is impressed by the car that has been built for the 2023 season despite lacking the aforementioned software systems.
“As a result of that, what impresses me, is that before I joined, they’ve built the car you see in front of you,” he said.
“15,000 pieces coming together, fitting, working and seemingly going around the track fairly quickly.
“That’s an incredible accomplishment, but clearly not how we can move forward. So we need systems in place and structures in place, and that was probably the one that took me back the most.”
Williams enjoyed a strong start to the 2023 season, scoring a point in Bahrain – the first time it achieved a top 10 result at a season-opener since 2017.
Vowles says that there are tracks on the calendar that will “definitely suit us” as it looks to bag more points this year.
“If you look to the breadth of last year and what happened with Williams, there were tracks where that car was definitely competitive,” he said.
“Monza was very much one of them. On the characteristics that the car has got, I suspect that it will be again this year.
“There were tracks where the car was poor, Barcelona, it will be again poor there.
“However, this is what I meant by there’s going to be up and down throughout the course of the season, it is, even with that, as a baseline, scratching and in a knife fight with two or three teams around us.
“McLaren will sort their problems out, I’m confident of that. The car is quick.
“We have to acknowledge and pick up everything we can until that happens. But there’s still teams in and around our performance region.”
