Williams boss James Vowles has explained how the team’s strong package this year has staved off a drop in performance amid Formula 1‘s aerodynamic testing reset.
The Grove-based squad has enjoyed a strong 2025 so far, sitting fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, 18 points ahead of nearest midfield challenger Aston Martin.
Its FW47 has been by far its fastest car for a number of years, seeing points finishes in all but four of the 14 rounds of the championship so far.
A fast and also benign car, the FW47, the team’s progress has only been significantly blunted by DNFs, largely caused by engine cooling issues.
The only punishment for its strong first half of the campaign is that it now has its aero testing time reduced, as per F1’s sliding scale rule.
It will now have an aero testing limit of 90 per cent, a 20 per cent drop from the December 2024-June ’25 period, from when it finished ninth in the Constructors’ standings last year.
When asked if the team has had to change its plans in this regard due to the decrease in testing time, Vowles explained this was not the case.
“No. It doesn’t do that so much,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“Even before that kicked in, our Head of Aero, Adam Kenyon, was really good at getting the team completely understanding what the impact of it would be.
“And what the main impact is you do have, of course, reduced wind tunnel time, but you can be more efficient in the experiments that you’re doing.
“So actually, it’s an efficiency push that took place. And it focuses you. I think for transparency, I don’t think it’s too bad from where we were to fifth.
“I think it gets very difficult when you’re championship leading, which is why McLaren are very impressive.”
Vowles unsurprised about strength of Williams so far this year
Vowles also spoke of how the team has executed races well when in positions to challenge for points.
“For sure, I reflect on our season this year and we’ve had elements where we’ve delivered and when we’ve delivered, it’s delivered well as a result of a number of iteration or cars in front of us,” he said.
“The car going into the year, if you ask me, I would say it’s going to be a very close battle between P5 all the way down to probably P8, which I think is the reflection of it.
“And I think if you look at our performance up until Imola and Miami, you would say, yep, the car is… we’re fifth, fourth, because we’re picking up good results.
“We’re not making any mistakes with it. But the field is very compact.”
Whilst not surprised about the overall performance of the FW47, Vowles revealed he was to some extent about its performance at circuits on which it was not expected to perform well.
“Then in Imola and Miami, I think it took the world a little bit by surprise as to how far we could push this car and develop this car,” he continued.
“Then the development race kicked in, and others added performance, adding performance, adding performance.
“Ferrari have done a brilliant job in that regard. And it was our update in Spa that brought us back into a position where we’re, again, able to get the car into the top ten.
“That’s my assessment of it. Am I surprised we’re fifth? I think any team could have had fortunate results along the way through.
“We did a good job when the car was quick and were able to pick up the points that we could.
“That said, I could already point you towards 18 points we didn’t pick up at that time. So I’m not surprised. I think it’s a long season left to go.
“I was surprised more at Imola and Miami that we were as quick as we were. That’s probably what I would put into it.”
READ MORE – Williams boss suggests F1 teams not consulted on ‘flawed’ Monaco GP rule return
Discussion about this post