After a sudden surge in performance towards the end of the 2023 season, Williams finished in P7. The team may be languishing in P9 currently in the 2024 season but the steady progress on the track is visible. That, as per sports journalist Tim Hauraney, is because of some crucial changes happening behind the scenes. For that overhaul, he credits the new team principal James Vowles.
Hauraney recalled the Williams team breakfast earlier this year which he attended with some other F1 journalists. While at it, Vowles narrated some operational snags that were common at Williams Racing.
That was until Vowles took charge and modernized the obsolete technology to ensure better accountability. Since then, Hauraney says, the team has taken massive strides in performance off the track. Speaking on Nailing The Apex podcast, he said,
“Back in Bahrain, when Williams had the team breakfast and we all got invited to that, just hearing about how much work they had to do to get them off Excel spreadsheets, and to get them on new-age technology, and the fact that they were losing components. I remember Vowles telling us [about] losing bolts and parts for the car. They couldn’t find them in the factory. You have to wonder how long that had been going on for?”
BREAKING: Carlos Sainz to join Williams Racing from 2025#F1 pic.twitter.com/3O3ROhrEES
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 29, 2024
F1TV broadcaster Lawrence Barretto, who was a guest on the podcast, verified the claim. Barretto further credited these backroom changes for ultimately landing Carlos Sainz.
The British expert believes it is this overhaul and the vision of Vowles that played a role in convincing the multiple-race-winning Spaniard to join the team when he had offers from the likes of Alpine and Audi/Sauber.
Are Williams sacrificing 2024 upgrades for 2025?
Barretto dived deeper into Vowles’ philosophy of fixing the processes by streamlining them through technological advancements. While that may be encouraging for the team, it might slow down their progress.
Barretto recalled Alex Albon’s comment from the Belgian GP where the British-Thai driver talked about having no upgrades until the end of the year. However, Barretto sees no downside to that.
He believes the team can still make progress with what they have for the 2024 season. Moreover, once the processes in the factory and on the track are fixed, the upgrades in 2025 will reap better results as they come.
That plan would have further bolstered Sainz’s confidence in his future team. After all, making a switch to a lower-rung team after driving for the likes of McLaren and Ferrari wouldn’t have been an easy decision.
