Williams boss James Vowles has claimed that “the world can’t see” the progress it made in 2024 to deliver on the team’s aspiration to return to the top in Formula 1.
The Grove-based squad endured a character-building season last time around as various setbacks saw it slip two places to ninth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Williams beginning 2024 with an overweight car preceded numerous crashes throughout the campaign that hampered how much it could develop the FW46 under the cost cap.
However, Vowles has remained bullish about the team’s long-term prospects amid the restructuring that he has undertaken since being appointed to head the team in 2023.
Vowles revealed last July that he has hired close to 250 people under his tenure as he sets his sights on Williams capitalising on the upcoming regulation change in 2026.
With owners Dorilton Capital committing expenditure to renovating the team’s base to augment the talent coming in, Vowles is upbeat about the advances made last term.
“The main thing is this: a lot of the really positive bits the world can’t see,” Vowles told Autosport.
“I can walk around the building and just see excellence that has race-winning pedigree all a part of our team now.
“I can see a change in what we’re doing with infrastructure, culture, people, commercial even – it’s just a different world.
“I’ve always said the journey is 2023, ‘24, ’25 – they’re just progression and the track results won’t necessarily reflect the really big changes going on behind the scenes.
“Do I think ninth fully reflects what we’ve achieved? No.
“There’s some really good technology gains coming through and there’s some really great things coming in the future. That’s my focus has been on.
“Does it frustrate me we’re ninth? Yes, absolutely, because I still like to come to the race weekend and get everything out of it, and we haven’t this year.
“We’ve been really hurt by quite significant amounts of attrition.
“We’ve been hurt by [our] own changing technologies that produced a car that wasn’t on the weight limit and we just haven’t been able to show the world what we can do.
“And then you get the odd races where people can see, ‘Williams is able to get into Q3 pretty much the whole time’, but we’re not delivering it.
“That will always harbour frustration, but it’s overwhelmed by the positive news behind the scenes.
“The only way the world will really see it is through progress now chunking in 2025, ‘26, ‘27.”
Williams must maximise more opportunities
Williams boasted a strong package over a single lap as the season unravelled, Alex Albon advancing into Q3 eight times, while Franco Colapinto replicated that twice.
However, those promising starts materialised into six points finishes from 24 races, but Vowles believes there were other occasions in qualifying that went begging.
Vowles has admitted that such missed opportunities show the team must improve trackside to be better prepared to cash in once it assembles a more competitive car.
“I’m going to remember we were up there in second in Brazil qualifying before Alex had an accident,” the ex-Mercedes Strategy Director recalled.
“We were up there in Q3 potential in Las Vegas with Franco before we had an accident [in Q2].
“I hate to always bring it back to an accident, but it’s the story of the year.
“We have to remember that the pace is there, but we’re not delivering on it as well. And that’s a team. I never put any onus on any one individual.
“That’s the team that is fundamentally – we’re not quite delivering it all together. And that’s the secret behind it.
“We need everything to move forward together. You need your reliability, your design, your performance, your drivers, your holistic strategy, how it all comes together, to move forward at the right rate.”
READ MORE – Alex Albon: F1 2024 ‘pain’ will benefit Williams in the future
