What Williams’s new boss must do to change the fortunes of F1’s backmarker

For this chapter of the Williams story, perhaps it is indeed fair to judge a book by its cover. After all, the livery that the FW45 will wear in 2023 aptly reflects the current limbo in which this historic grand prix team now finds itself.

The latest paint job is little more than a subtle evolution of what came before, when the cars were spotted racing at the back of the pack. Tweaks are minor rather than sweeping, in the same way that the Grove headquarters isn’t set for a major infrastructure overhaul. It won’t christen a new windtunnel and simulator like fellow heritage squad McLaren is busy building as a silver bullet to unlock performance.

Notable changes instead come in the form of a couple of absences. In deference to parting company with driver Nicholas Latifi after three seasons, the prominent stickers and backing of Sofina and Lavazza have gone and haven’t fully been replaced. Much like CEO Jost Capito and technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison leaving at the end of last year. And where there is a shiny addition, it’s barely visible, initially at least.

Forget an eye-catching blend of tangerine and zenith blue for the FW45 following a statement partnership with Gulf – there’s just a couple of small logos for the oil company on the rear wing and monocoque. Likewise, for the ‘season launch’ event last Monday, marquee team principal hire James Vowles was nowhere to be seen.

The ex-Mercedes strategy director, who stepped back from the Formula 1 pitwall more recently to occupy a holistic role overseeing driver contracts and managing the manufacturer’s entire motorsport presence, won’t clock in until 20 February. Until the Briton completes his Silver Arrows gardening leave, punches his new Oxfordshire commute into the sat nav and sets foot in the factory for the first time, the remaining Williams figureheads all talk of simply carrying on as before.

Head of vehicle performance Dave Robson says of the leadership transition: “Technically, it’s been fine. It’s been smooth because a lot of the big decisions were all taken before [Capito and Demaison left]. So, we’ve just been, over the last six to eight weeks, putting the rest of that plan into action. Then we’ll wait until James joins and find out how we want to change and move things on.”

Altering the course of an operation staffed by over 700 people is akin to steering a container ship. As such, the impact of Vowles’s appointment will take years to be fully realised on track. Combine that fact with the current understandable conservatism within the camp, and there’s not an abundance of optimism to suggest that F1’s rank backmarker will climb off the foot of the constructors’ championship come the end of this season. But while the results at the chequered flag might not improve dramatically, plenty of change will at least be taking place behind closed doors as Vowles works through his overflowing in-tray.

The livery that the FW45 will wear in 2023 aptly reflects the current limbo in which this historic grand prix team now finds itself

Photo by: Williams

The first problem on the agenda concerns Williams having split with Capito and Demaison in mid-December but so far only replacing the former. The technical division requires a leader, and Vowles needs a close ally at the top. Even if long-time Capito associate Demaison had no previous F1 experience, he was still tasked with managing the development path of the cars created during his short 19-month tenure. That clearly is a position that cannot be left vacant for the sake of both this season – even if Williams is only occasionally fighting for a points finish – and when it comes to the latter stages of 2023 and conceiving the FW46.

While Vowles doesn’t inherit the CEO title and more overarching responsibilities that his predecessor had, it is almost certain that he will be at the centre of this recruitment. He might therefore select someone similar in stature and ambition to himself: an experienced and impressive operator who isn’t currently in the limelight. A high achiever who must depart a larger and more competitive team to take full control. If that is the route Vowles goes for, then 21 years working in the paddock will have already provided him with a reliable shortlist of contenders. Thereafter, the actual business of hiring an outstanding candidate should be painless enough, unlike the next task on his agenda.

It is understood that Capito failed in his aim to quash the finger-pointing culture that has dogged Williams. While he at least identified the philosophy problem, it is said that the German was handicapped by a blend of his own leadership shortfalls and the difficulty in reversing an internal rot that had set in after, depending on how you measure it, at least five years of the squad languishing in F1’s doldrums.

"What’s required is restrengthening of the technical team, but also allowing those internally that are incredibly good to shine and prosper" James Vowles

Vowles is similarly acutely aware of the need to upset the lingering status quo, lift the spirits and have everyone pulling in the right direction. And because Williams cannot fall any lower than its 2022 finishing position of 10th in the standings, perhaps now is the perfect time to encourage personnel to be bolder and more open to risk. The only way is up.

“When you’re hurting, and when you’ve been punished and you’ve been pushed down as an organisation because you’re suffering, that doesn’t get any better year on year unless you get a chance to change what’s going on,” says Vowles. “A change to the culture, a change to the methods and systems.

“The real gain that you get out of this is that you have to instil a culture that allows everyone to realise that you have to be empowered, you have to grow, you have to move forward as a unit and it has to be one collaborative motion. I strongly suspect that we’re just in a situation where that collaboration isn’t quite at the level it could be or should be, just simply because it’s been a few years of pain that cemented it.

“Clearly one individual won’t make it. What’s required is restrengthening of the technical team, but also allowing those internally that are incredibly good to shine and prosper.”

Vowles will of course transpose what he knows works best from his time at Brackley

Photo by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Images

Although Vowles has been quick to rubbish the notion that he’s at Williams simply to create a ‘mini-Mercedes’, he will of course transpose what he knows works best from his time at Brackley. After winning eight constructors’ crowns with the Three-Pointed Star, copying over the ‘no blame’ culture that has been so successful under Toto Wolff is guaranteed.

PLUS: Why the new Williams boss shouldn’t avoid ‘Mercedes B-team’ comparisons

Such is the effectiveness of this way of working that even ex-Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto tried to replicate it at Maranello. His problem was that the ‘no blame’ part appeared to get lost in translation. When the Prancing Horse’s strategy and engine reliability came under heavy fire last term, he refused to concede any wrongdoing. But if the concept alone is good enough for Ferrari and Mercedes, it is one that the Williams incumbents must embrace readily this time around. Fortunately, Vowles knows how to implement it much more thoroughly.

The other long-standing problem at Grove has been underfunding during the latter years of the ownership of the eponymous founding family. Asked to identify the main cause of the decline from four podiums and third in the points in 2015, Robson replies: “I think you can’t get around the fact that the investment has been a problem. And although the regulations [with the cost cap] have improved in that regard, you’re not going to undo the sheer amount of money the big teams have been spending for a decade.

“They’ve got that, whether that’s equipment or knowledge, and it’s got some decay time and it’ll be a little bit of time before things are really reset. So, that certainly is part of it. I think the other thing we’re looking for with James is that stability. We’re ready now to go on that next stage of this redevelopment and get some sense of stability and a much longer-term plan. That will stand us in good stead.”

Again, it seems Williams now has its best chance of repairing the damage. Dorilton Capital bought the team in late 2020 for a reported $200million. The private investment firm has pumped in another nine figures since. There has been speculation that it could be a flight risk, seeking to cash in on F1’s commercial boom with a quick sale. But the public line has long been that Dorilton is here to stay and propel Williams up the order.

That stands to reason with the appointment of Vowles. His signing is a coup that arguably makes the team more appealing to prospective buyers than Capito (ostensibly the 64-year-old was only ever delaying his retirement by two years and was always planned as a short-term appointment).

But for Vowles to have willingly flown the Mercedes nest, it seems reasonable to expect that he was given certain assurances over job security. Namely, that he will be afforded the necessary time and patience to change the fortunes of a struggling squad. Also, that he won’t soon be dealing with new owners and a new board who might then want to install their own chosen one at the top to leave him clearing his desk. As such, Dorilton will likely be around for some time to keep writing the big cheques required to lift the concern.

Alex Albon, pictured with Logan Sargeant, is similarly confident in Dorilton's commitment

Photo by: Williams

Alex Albon is similarly confident in the commitment.

“I get to speak to the board quite often,” he says. “The main thing is long-term vision. I think that’s important for any kind of investment company. They really do see the future; they are investing. You see also with James, and I know in the areas that he wants to improve, you have this big sense that they’re fully behind everything.”

But even regular healthy cash injections won’t automatically give Williams’s on-track results a shot in the arm. At best, they will ensure that the team is operating up to the budget cap, as Sauber will now begin to do thanks to the deep pockets of Audi, while a new title sponsor helps fund fellow rival Haas. The financial regulations prevent Dorilton from ever throwing caution to the wind and outspending all other parties to get to the front of the grid in double-quick time – something the firm could reasonably do now that Williams is no longer a public company that must appease markets and shareholders.

“If we go back a few years, we didn’t have the strength that is Dorilton,” explains Vowles. “Dorilton really want and will invest the correct amount to make this a performant team. And I don’t think it was fair to say that was the case just a few years ago. The impact of them will take a while to probably kick in.”

"When we asked our senior leadership team [at Mercedes] what’s the most important element of the team, it will always come back to two things: people and culture" James Vowles

If Williams can’t initially bank on the financial regulations to aid its revival, another recent addition to the rulebook might prove more promising. Also designed to create a tightly contested grid are the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions whereby, according to a sliding scale, the teams at the top of the championship are entitled to fewer windtunnel runs and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) hours than the strugglers.

Williams will therefore receive the greatest allocation for bringing up the rear in 2022, having poorly adapted to the new ground-effects era with an overweight car that loved to lock its front tyres at low speed.

“It is useful as part of the general handicapping system,” says Robson of the ATR. “Hopefully, we’ve exploited that to the full. But clearly you need to be extremely efficient and not just rely on more time and more resource. So, we’ll see what everyone else has been up to. Obviously, the regulation change will have knocked everyone back. It certainly knocked us back. But hopefully we have the opportunity to get all of that back and more.”

When the benefits of the ATR, renewed and reliable investment and a culture change are combined, there isn’t the clamour for another redevelopment of Grove. Vowles believes these other priorities will instead provide the bulk of the gains.

Williams won't be able to outspend its rivals to move back to the front of the grid due to the cost cap

Photo by: Williams

He recalls: “When we asked our senior leadership team [at Mercedes] what’s the most important element of the team, it will always come back to two things: people and culture. Not the machine shop floor, not the windtunnel tools, not the driver-in-the-loop simulator. It comes back to people and culture.

“I believe exactly the same is true within Williams… It is the highest thing on my priority list: making sure everyone understands that it’s about working together, about empowerment, about treating your colleagues with the respect that you want back from them, the growth you want back from them, so that we can work together towards an end goal.”

What Vowles has no intention of doing to change the fortunes of Williams, though, is to simply morph it into a Mercedes B-team. Although the ownership has changed and bosses have come and gone, that’s one principle that has remained entirely consistent at Grove over the decades. Williams wants to be recognised independently and cultivate any success on its own terms.

While the customer engine relationship with the Silver Arrows will almost certainly continue for the foreseeable future, and the two squads will surely be political allies in all the key votes thanks to the bond and similar views of Vowles and Wolff, Williams won’t be to Merc what Haas is to Ferrari.

Unlike that American-Italian alliance, there will not be an entrenched technical partnership whereby Williams can access a supply of ‘transferrable parts’ beyond the expected engine and gearbox. Nor will there be a ‘design hub’ based at Brackley or extensive use of the windtunnel. And since Mercedes has already made its redundancies to comply with the cost cap, staff won’t be loaned out to bolster the Williams effort. And, for Vowles, that’s just fine.

“For my perspective, Williams is an entirely independent organisation,” he says. “It’s one that my success is dependent on me doing a good job there. That has to be independent of Mercedes. It doesn’t mean that Mercedes and ourselves won’t have collaboration in some form or another. There was collaboration before I joined. But I have to do what is best for Williams.

“You put a crisp Williams shirt on. That’s where you are, that’s where your loyalty is. And that’s where my success and the team’s success will come from. So, there’s no mini-Mercedes or ‘B team’ or any of that notion. This is about me standing on my own two legs and making a success with an organisation around me.”

In his own words, Robson has only said ‘hello’ to Vowles so far (Albon has been taken out for dinner by the new boss, at least). Nevertheless, for this matter, they happen to already be completely aligned.

Williams is keen to retain its independence and won't follow the lead Haas has taken

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Asked if Williams could ever adopt a subordinate role to Mercedes, Robson responds: “I don’t think so. I think we can do what we need to do with the relationship we currently have with Mercedes for the next couple of years. They provide us with some amount of hardware that’s extremely good. But we are an independent team, and we need to take the rest of it forwards on our own or at least be prepared to do that. We’ll see what the future holds for 2026 when things get shaken up again [with new engine regulations]. But I don’t think we want to follow a Haas model.”

Vowles recalls gripping the catch fencing at Silverstone in the 1990s as he paid particular attention to the Williams machines that were testing. Back then, the team was in its active car, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost-fronted pomp. Rediscovering that championship-winning potency seems an incredibly tall order just now. But, with Vowles at the helm, perhaps it can at least begin a sustained recovery. The new boss reckons that’s entirely achievable.

“Williams is filled with incredibly talented people who were just hurting a little bit from the last few years, but it has great potential,” he says. “For me personally, I’m very, very excited. I think it’s a good fit for myself and I’m looking forward to working with Williams in order to move forward up the grid. I’m confident we can.”

It will likely be several years before Vowles’s grand plan produces obvious gains on track. But plenty will already be changing in 2023 behind the scenes

For his shock signing, a remarkable CV and the vision that he has sold to his new colleagues and the Dorilton board, there’s a great buzz around the appointment of Vowles and what he can bring to Williams. If he successfully changes the culture, makes employees feel loved again and uses the reliable investment to effectively delegate the technical department, then better times are plausibly on the horizon for this famous team.

It will likely be several years before Vowles’s grand plan produces obvious gains on track. But plenty will already be changing in 2023 behind the scenes. And if that is the case, livery aside, it would finally then be unwise to judge this book by its cover.

Plenty will already be changing in 2023 behind the scenes at Williams as it strives to get back to a point of competitiveness

Photo by: Williams