James Vowles has just concluded his first Formula 1 season in charge of a team: namely the legendary Williams outfit, no less.
The British engineer had previously spent over two decades based at Brackley with the likes of BAR, Honda, Brawn, and eventually, the all-conquering Mercedes.
However, on the eve of the 2023 campaign, Vowles leapt into one of the 10 hottest seats in the sport, taking up his place in the ‘piranha club’ as an F1 Team Principal.
The Grove-based squad, in recent years, has been at the wrong end of the field and streets away from the success for which they had become renowned in the 1990s.
But under the stewardship of Vowles, there appears to be fresh optimism that the path ahead will lead them to new glories that will write a new chapter in Williams’ history.
It will be a long road, full of twists and turns. But in his first year, Vowles and the team have made great strides, achieving seventh place in the Constructors’ standings.
That marked Williams’ best result since winding up fifth in 2017, suggesting that the side is heading back in the right direction.
How has Vowles found his first year in charge, though? Motorsport Week caught up with the man himself to discuss 2023, bedding in at Williams, and living and breathing F1.
We started with his reflections on the year, and on his own personal performance throughout his maiden year at the helm of an F1 operation.
“Apprehension wouldn’t be the right word, but when you go into a complete change in environment, you always have a feeling of, is one individual really going to be sufficient for a difference, and will you be accepted, or will you be pushed out because an organisation has its own strengths,” Vowles said.
“What I was incredibly pleased by is that the organisation, within minutes of me arriving, accepted who I was and who I am. The body language where they struggled to look each other in the eye and were a little bit shoulders down turned into an organisation where their heads are held up high again and that’s the direction of travel we are on.
“It’s never the work of one person. We’re here with a car that’s seventh as a result of 900 people pulling together in the right direction and I’m optimistic for the future as a result of the change that we had in a very short space of time. I think on my own performance, the goals I’d set myself is to make sure that every decision we’re taking is moving the company in the right direction. And some of those decisions will be difficult and so to not shy away from those.
“Second thing I set myself is, don’t hesitate or pause. If you know what to do, get on with it with immediate effect. I think so far, I’ve completed both of those requirements to the best of my ability.
“And really the first few goals were getting the right structure in place around me, so that we have the support of not just one other individual, but a management team. I’m pleased to say again that I think we’re in a very good space as a result of that. So when I reflect on the year, I think seventh is an incredible achievement.”
Earning seventh is probably as good as it could have been this year for Williams, given the state of play following a torrid first year in this regulation cycle.
Now, nearly a full calendar year into the job, we wonder what surprises Vowles has encountered during his time at Grove so far.
“The one that I was really public about, and I’m going to remain that way, is the team does an incredible job given the infrastructure and the lack of systems it has in place,” he noted. “If I’ve ever seen an industry or a company built on passion, it’s this one. Very agile, but unstructured as well and you need both.
“The fact that they, before I arrived, got the car out of the door, is just mighty. It is the result of hundreds of people pulling together when it really mattered.
“And I saw the same thing earlier in the year when we had to do the Montreal update. I went down and I did a talk to some of the key people involved in production and build. The talk was, “We’ll make this work, I’ll be here with you. Let’s get this done, but it’s incredibly hard.” What I didn’t realise is they took that as we’re going to have to sleep in the factory! They were prepared to do that, completely comfortable with giving up their home life to be in the factory 24/7.
“That doesn’t exist, certainly in my old place, to that level. That’s Williams all over, and the passion and the racing is very much embedded in the bottom of it. Even though I was forewarned before coming here, I wasn’t aware of the lack of systems or the structure and machines that really exist everywhere else.”
Clearly, on that front, there’s a lot of work to do for Williams and a lot of investment needed. But we put it to Vowles that it sounds like the spirit you need to succeed is already installed within the personnel in the team, and if you can place the structure around it they’ll be on the right path.
“You’ve nailed that,” he responded. “That is pretty much the whole secret behind it and we’re starting to get there.
“It will take a long time to get there. It’s not just the structure. We need to invest in infrastructure, which we are now. So my pleas in the middle of the year, thankfully, were heard for some CapEx in order for us to be able to change some really aging equipment. It’s a better place now. But that won’t kick in over night, a lot of that is going to take 12 to 24 months to properly get to that position.”
Evidently, the people at Williams are what Vowles is enjoying most of all, as we ask him about his highs of being granted the responsibility of fronting a recovering F1 team.
“The enjoyable part is when you have an organisation that was perhaps a little bit scattered, but it really does want success, and as a result of that, they’ve changed,” he added.
“Normally, cultural changes or positional changes take years. And in just months, we’ve had impressive… restructuring isn’t quite the right word, but an impressive movement in the right direction.
“What I’ve been thankful of as team principal is that your words resonate with individuals. They can see the values that I have personally, and ultimately, that’s the best compliment you can ever possibly have in terms of that position.
“The second is, I don’t think I’ve monumentally f***** up, so that’s quite nice as well! So it’s nice that we’re on the right path together, and we have the alignment of 900 people pointing the right way.”
Vowles has certainly had an impressive impact on those he has joined, emulating similar effects of those team principals he has worked with in his own career so far.
Having worked with some of the most revered bosses in the sport over the last two decades, we ask him what he’s taken from the likes of Dave Richards, Ross Brawn, and Toto Wolff – all from his time at Brackley – or whether he’s looked to forge his own individual approach.
“So it’s been a bit of both,” he answered. “DR is completely different to Ross, who’s completely different to Toto.
“Toto’s strength is he is incredibly good at understanding the financials behind the organisation and how to structure it. Sponsorship, growth of the organisation and growth of the sport even, I really don’t think there’s anyone better than him doing that. And there’s elements of that I was fortunate enough to learn from him and take onboard. He’s also fit in very well with the culture that was already in place before he joined Mercedes, which is one that was grown by the senior management team myself, including about failure and other aspects.
“Just learning from him about how you empower individuals was the strength of Toto.
“With Ross, his strength was he got the right people together in the right room talking. He doesn’t know the detailed technicals behind the car, neither of those two examples do, but that doesn’t matter. What he does know is how to get the right people together and how to create an environment where you discuss things.
“And with DR, [he was] one of the best leaders I ever worked for. He could take a room and turn us in the right way and the right direction and was very, very good at doing that.
“So there’s a little bit I took from each and every one of them.
“But the bit I always said to myself was, I want to be genuine in myself. What you see here, this is me, the same as you’ll see on camera, the same as you’ll see when I’m talking to the organisation.
“I’m doing this because I love racing. I’ve given up my whole life for this. I want to make sure that those are the foundations of who I am and that has to come across, and I’ll be genuine to myself, genuine to my team and to be genuine to the world.”
As mentioned, Vowles worked for the likes of Mercedes before making the switch to Williams. He was the Motorsport Strategy Director for the Silver Arrows before moving on, and we wondered how the skills learned in that role could transfer to the one he finds himself in now.
“I was fortunate at Mercedes that I wasn’t rooted in the day-to-day strategic decisions, because I had a really good team that was doing all that hard work,” he admitted. “I was just ensuring that we all worked towards the same objective, which is very difficult when you are fighting for the championship.
“And then something else Toto was very good at empowering me on was the drivers. He wouldn’t be able to undertake all of those tasks [as things grew,] and then it expanded to the strategic direction.
“So if you took strategy, where I started was what we’re going to do in qualifying and the race. Instantaneous decisions that then lead on to a result.
“Then it expanded to how do you actually deploy power units across the year? How do you deploy upgrades across the year? How do you work across the season now to get the most out of it? Then it went up to how do you cross the next three years so we get ourselves in the best position possible in the championship? Then it grew up to, how do you deal with external activities like GT3 racing, Formula E and Mercedes and drivers.
“So, to answer your question, incredibly transferable, because that’s how the role migrated. It’s still strategy, you still have to think strategically about what you’re doing. The time-domain is changed but I think some of the core skills you have are very, very, similar.”
Similar aspects between the two roles, then, but the two teams are obviously at different ends of the grid right now.
That, though, and the experience of being at the front, is what is helping Vowles keep a level head when results swing at Williams.
“It’s as simple as this: I’ve had the joy of winning races and winning championships, so I want the same for everyone else in this building. What that means is, we finish eighth, ninth, 10th, and we score a point and I’m ecstatic and I’ll give everything I can in a weekend. But it doesn’t trigger any of the highs that you would normally expect.
“The same, therefore, if we’re out at turn 1, as was the case in Brazil, means it doesn’t trigger any of the lows. Because what I want for this team is far, far more than that. I want that every weekend we are disappointed we’re not fighting for podiums or fighting for a win, and at that point, the highs and lows, I’ll let that trigger.
“But that’s how you do it, it’s because I want more performance than we have today. So, you go bigger picture. It’s sort of what I said publicly, I’m not interested in fighting for eighth, seventh [in the WCC]. I’m interested in moving this team up the grid. And therefore, these results are just instantaneous moments in time.
“What I’m thinking about is, how do we move this forward long term, so that we give everyone the opportunity to feel what I’ve felt.”
Thinking about getting the team to that next level sounds all-consuming, and listening to Vowles speaking about it only serves as a testament to that as we ask him about being able to switch off.
“So, one of the downsides that I have is I don’t sleep a tremendous amount. People around me know that, because I message them at very odd times.
“I treat it only as a positive, so my waking thoughts, my sleeping thoughts, are filled with how do we do better than what we are doing right now.
“And I love it, I really do. And a lot of it, the downside is often you wake up at four in the morning, and you just start going into “Let’s deal with this, let’s deal with that.”
“And some of the best thoughts I’ve had, have taken place outside of normal hours. I’m okay with it, I’m comfortable with it, because it’s how I am as an individual and others around me are getting used to it, I think that’s the right way of putting it.
“But it’s a weakness as well, I’m conscious that my life is very much this. This is what defines it. I’m fortunate enough to become a father, but it’s a balance with what I’ve got here. And this is incredibly important.”
We therefore ask Vowles if he has a pen and paper at his bedside, just in case of any of those 4am brainwaves. “I used to use pen and paper but I’ve migrated towards the digital domain, but I definitely want to write it down straight away, because that allows me to empty my brain out,” he replied.
“It’s almost a mindfulness exercise. Once I’ve cleared it out of my mind, and I know that I’ve created either actions for it immediately or at least note taking has been done. I can then almost get myself back to sleep. If I don’t do that I get myself more frustrated.
“The best ideas I’ve ever had, are [normally when] showering in the morning and running. Running, I use for mindfulness, so I clear my mind out. Best way I can explain it is that everything is jumbled, it goes out, and then it comes back in a really ordered manner. So I don’t do traditional mindfulness, but that’s what works for me.”
Clearly, F1 and earning Williams success is on Vowles’ mind non-stop, but we question what he does to try and take his mind off of things.
“This is a rewarding life, as long as you accept that this is your hobby, your passion, everything, and you work at the same time,” he said. “So there’s not a lot of time outside of it.
“What I do outside of it is my own racing. It’s not classed as a holiday, I’m completely aware of it, but I really enjoy it because it connects you a lot more to the drivers than anything else.
“Or I’ll use exercise, fundamentally mainly because this [job] becomes a lot easier when you are fit. It’s very tough to do 23, 24 races a year without that. I think those are the main things: exercise and my own racing. They are the two things that sort of impassion me outside of this. Again, it comes with its downsides. On holiday, you can ask my partner, actually I ask you don’t do that! But the first four days are difficult because I really struggle to switch off.”
For Vowles, F1 is his complete life, and that mindset fits in perfectly at a team such as Williams where the sport, and succeeding in it, is woven into their fabric.
They are, of course, not where they want to be yet but after their most positive campaign for over half a decade, there’s a genuine belief that more successful days are on the horizon.
