After announcing the 2023 car launch date two days ago, Williams Racing have announced the appointment of James Vowles as their new Team Principal. The former strategy director of the Mercedes F1 team will officially join Williams on February 20th, 2023, just before the new season’s first Grand Prix in Bahrain.
The 43-year-old will become only the constructor’s third Team Principal in its 46-year history. Frank Williams and Jost Capito have held the designation before Vowles. As the strategy director of Mercedes F1, Vowles and co have won nine F1 Constructors’ Championships.
The Brit’s F1 career started at the British American Racing and Honda Racing F1. After being saved by Ross Brawn’s buyout, Vowles was promoted to race strategist at the newly formed Brawn GP in 2009. The F1 team won the Constructors’ Championship in its debut season, leaving favourites like Ferrari, Mclaren, and Red Bull in its rear-view mirrors.
During his time with Brawn GP, Vowles played an influential role in deriving race strategies that helped Jenson Button win the 2009 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship. These results have put the formed F1 team of Brawn GP in the history books as the only team to have a perfect championship record in Formula 1.
Vowles will face a completely different challenge at Williams. Brawn GP were a title-winning constructor and so were their successors Mercedes. Meanwhile, Williams, who have won nine F1 Constructors’ Championships in the past, have not been able to match the pace of the other competitors on the track.
Since the 2018 Formula 1 season, Williams have found themselves at the wrong end of the grid. After finishing fifth in 2017, Williams finished tenth in 2018 with just seven points. The nightmare continued for the constructor in 2019 when they finished at the bottom of the championship with just one point. 2020 was the worst year in recent times for Williams as they finished at the bottom yet again and failed to get a single point on the board.
With George Russell in the cockpit, there was a slight resurgence in 2021 when the constructor went on to finish ahead of Haas F1 and Alfa Romeo, but last season, they fell to the bottom again, finishing with eight points.
The new car for the upcoming season will be unveiled on February 6th, 2023. Three constructors are yet to announce their unveiling dates, but as things stand, Williams will be the first constructor to unveil their car for the 2023 season. It will be interesting to see if the new machine and James Vowles can bring the glory days back to Williams Racing.
“I cannot wait to start with Williams Racing. It’s an honour to join a team with such an incredibly rich heritage. The team is an icon of our sport, one I greatly respect, and I am very much looking forward to the challenge,” said James Vowles, after accepting the job.
Speaking about his departure from Mercedes after more than 12 years, Vowles said, “Mercedes have been hugely supportive on my journey, and we part on excellent terms after over 20 years of working in Brackley. I am grateful for everything Toto [Wolff] and the team have provided, and it has been such a special experience to journey together through failure and success.”
Former boss and current Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff also expressed his thoughts on Vowles’ new venture.
“Having worked with him since I first joined the team in 2013, I know how diligent, capable and talented he is and have taken great satisfaction from watching James develop and grow over the past decade. While we are naturally sad to be saying goodbye, we wish him every success and are delighted that he will take this next step in his career with Williams, a strong technical partner of ours and one that has a place close to my own heart,” said Wolff.
