James Vowles Hails Program That Prepares 8-Year-Olds to Work With Williams in the Future

Williams team principal James Vowles recently appeared on the Fast and the Curious podcast, where he delved into the inner workings of his side’s workforce. On the podcast, host Christian Hewgill quizzed the Briton about the modern era of the sport where the workforce has moved towards embracing the ideals of inclusivity.

Vowles joined the sport in 2001 with British American Racing (BAR). The 45-year-old conceded that back in his day, the sport was reserved for middle-aged white men. However, 23 years on, he has seen a lot of meaningful changes that have opened the doors for aspiring students to carve a career out for themselves in the industry.

Particularly, Vowles is most proud of a program that builds and nurtures students from a very young age (8) and provides them with a platform to get into the sport, irrespective of their gender, race or identity. He explained,

“What you have to do is go down to the age group of 8,9 [or] 10 when you form your ideas and say, ‘It doesn’t matter where you are from, what your background is – men or women. It really doesn’t matter. Here’s Williams, here’s F1, here’s the STEM subjects. If you want to do this, great, at least now you have awareness.” 

The hosts were also joined by Christina Sullivan, who works as a Wind Tunnel Engineer with the Grove-based team. She revealed the interesting pathway she took to reach the world of Formula 1.

How Drive to Survive sparked a dream to work in Formula 1

Sullivan revealed that she had one day sat down to watch the Netflix series, Drive to Survive, with her sister. She got hooked on the sport thereafter and wanted to pursue a career in it.

She channeled her passion for the sport into her academics. Whilst studying, she wrote her dissertation on the sport and applied to Williams. Eventually, she heard back from the team and got the job.

“Because I was doing so much research about Formula 1, aerodynamics – I got an ad from LinkedIn about Williams’ placements. So, I applied and got the job,” she revealed.