Williams Team Principal James Vowles has admitted that it is unlikely to take “big steps” up the pecking order until the Formula 1 regulations are overhauled in 2026.
Having been rooted to the bottom in four out of the last five years prior to Vowles’ arrival, the Grove-based squad is aiming to build on a promising 2023 season that saw it amass 28 points to clinch seventh in the standings.
While Vowles, who was appointed on the eve of the campaign, came in too late to influence the FW45, the Briton orchestrated the allocation of resources towards 2024.
Williams only introduced a sole upgrade in Canada, the seventh round of the year, resulting in a vastly improved AlphaTauri outfit almost pipping it in the closing rounds.
Vowles believes that decision will pay dividends in unlocking more downforce but also addressing the persistent behavioural traits that had regularly hampered its drivers.
“We’ve added downforce, but actually the main thing we’ve been working on is the behaviour and characteristics of the car,” Vowles told Autosport about the 2024 car.
“I think there’s quite an untapped potential in that, so we can move forward. How much is hard to say though.”
Despite the remarkable progress produced by Aston Martin and McLaren last season, Vowles is aware that replicating such headway will be no mean feat for Williams.
Instead, the ex-Mercedes Strategy Director cites that he is preparing the team to optimise the upcoming reset to the technical rules when sizeable gains can be made.
“I’m happy with the work we’re doing, but I bet you if you interview everyone up and down the grid they’ll go: ‘I’m happy with the work we’re doing.’ That normally tells you you’re going to maybe squeak forward a little bit, but that’s about it,” he acknowledged.
“The big steps really come with regulation change. 2026 will be the first opportunity for us to properly step forward.”
Vowles successfully combated F1’s rule-makers to relax CapEx spending for those at the backend of the grid as Williams endeavours to invest more in its facilities.
But while he has already altered things both on the track and away from it, Vowles insists that the rewards of those changes will only be properly reaped further down the line.
“You can get dragged in very quickly to what I call the weeds, where you look at a problem and then start digging through it,” he elucidated. “But that’s ‘short-termism’, to be honest, because that problem is already the result of other systems that are wrong to start with.
“Pretty much everything we’ve changed is bringing in infrastructure and bringing in people, and it will take a long time before the ripples are felt as a result of it.”
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