James Vowles hails ‘fantastic’ Williams F1 performance in Baku

Williams boss James Vowles hailed an “absolutely fantastic” double-points scoring result for the team in the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Franco Colapinto and Alex Albon both advanced into the top-10 Q3 shootout and advanced to eighth and ninth on the grid respectively thanks to a power unit change on Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.

Albon started on the Hard tyre and engaged in a super long first stint, pitting on Lap 32 of 51 to end the race on Mediums.

Colapinto did the inverse, swapping Mediums for Hards on Lap 11 and both drivers fought their way back into the points-paying positions late on.

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A clash between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap promoted the Williams duo to seventh and eighth by the time the chequered flag fell.

“10 points, absolutely fantastic, what a great feeling,” Vowles said in his post-race video address.

“For Franco, his first points as a Williams racing driver, his first points scored in a Formula 1 Grand Prix, that’s exceptional, in your second Grand Prix.

“Strong race for us, we came in really with that update still working. You can now see across Zandvoort, Monza out here, we’re able to get the car into [Q3], except this weekend both cars were there.

“In terms of the race itself, we tried two different strategies really to race Fernando [Alonso].

“[Aston Martin is] very, very strong, he’s a very clever driver and it was difficult to get ahead of him. I think they had just slightly better degradation than we did relative to Alex, and that’s something we need to look into, but the car pace is there or thereabouts.”

Vowles confident Williams can keep fighting with Albon and Colapinto

“Then towards the end of the race, Franco just did a brilliant job, staying within just a few seconds of Alex, ready to pick up anything that came our way, and it did, in a big way,” Vowles said.

“Well done to both drivers. It’s not easy doing a one-stop here, pushing the tyres to the absolute limit of life and not making a single mistake, and they both did that today, admirably.”

Williams’ Baku result added 10 points to the team’s tally in the Constructors’ standing.

The score takes the Grove-based F1 outfit to 16 points in total, leapfrogging Alpine to sit eighth in the table.

With seven rounds remaining, Vowles is buoyed by Williams’ upgrades working at Zandvoort, Monza and Baku.

Williams is now 13 points behind seventh-placed Haas in the Constructors’ standings and Vowles implied that target is attainable.

“Off to Singapore next, I’m excited to see what we can deliver there and beyond,” he said.

“There is plenty of opportunity left in this championship.”