Williams has admitted that not having the right infrastructure in place was the main reason that the team missed out on signing Formula 1 design guru Adrian Newey.
Newey’s prestigious services became coveted earlier this season when it was announced that he would be leaving his long-standing role with Red Bull in March 2025.
The Briton was soon linked with both Aston Martin and Ferrari, though Williams boss James Vowles revealed that he had spoken with Newey about a potential return.
Newey worked at Williams between 1991 and 1996, during which time he and Patrick Head provided the inspiration behind the cars that secured nine championships.
However, a reunion will not be on the cards amid the Grove-based squad’s drastic decline since that period which has seen it not register a single race win since 2012.
Williams, though, is plotting a revival under Vowles, who has hired almost 250 new people since he was appointed to overturn the team’s fortunes prior to last season.
But while Newey’s track record indicates recruiting him guarantees success, Vowles has insisted that Williams does not possess the facilities to maximise his talents.
“It has nothing to do with the money, even if there was a bidder competition at the end, in which we did not want to participate,” Vowles told Auto Motor und Sport.
“I want people who believe in our project. Williams wasn’t ready for someone like Adrian yet.
“We still need to do so much reconstruction before we can provide the right environment for one of his class.
“He would have overwhelmed our team, and that could have achieved the opposite effect. He would have been frustrated in the end.
“Furthermore, I do not want to build an infrastructure that depends on a person. Williams is not about me, a driver or an engineer.
“It will be a team of 1,000 people working together. That is important. It brings you a short-term loss for a long-term profit.”
Williams won’t drift from planned roadmap
Instead, Newey has signed a lucrative deal, which includes becoming a shareholder, to oversee Aston Martin’s technical group as its new Managing Technical Partner.
Aston Martin will be able to supplement Newey’s expertise with a new, state-of-the-art wind tunnel among the renovations at the marque’s revamped Silverstone base.
But despite Aston Martin’s lavish expenditure under owner Lawrence Stroll, Vowles has claimed that will not tempt Williams to drift from the roadmap he has outlined.
“Lawrence is far more successful than I am,” Vowles highlighted.
“He has achieved much more than I did in my life. Aston Martin makes the right decisions and engages the right people, but they have a 2026 engine change in front of the chest.
“This always takes a time of acknowledgment. Now to your question: I want to go my own way, and it differs from the path of others, whether in the past or now. What do we have to lose?
“We are already in the middle. I want to set up the team carefully for the future, even though I still pay a price for it today.
“Our investments are well chosen. But we don’t run around with an open chequebook.”
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