Williams’ Sao Paulo GP weekend encapsulated their 2024 season — a mix of inconsistency and bad luck. The rare moments of promising pace in Brazil were overshadowed by a double DNF, which significantly impacted both their financial standing and their position in the Championship. Despite this, James Vowles is doing his best to motivate the Grove-based team, aiming to help them recover from this setback.
The Williams Team principal spoke about the team’s ambitions to return to the front of the grid, a goal he has been working towards since joining from Mercedes in 2023. Despite describing Brazil as the “most brutal” race of his career, he refused to let it demoralize him. Vowles remained confident that the team can bounce back stronger.
“It was great to come together and just feel that sense of teamwork, resilience that really defines who we were as Williams,” Vowles said in an Instagram post. “We will come back stronger from this. This is a blip in our journey toward fighting back at the front of the grid again.”
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He mentioned that drivers Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto were present during the post-Sao Paulo GP discussions at the factory. Vowles emphasized that he wanted the entire team to use the disappointing outing as a reminder to avoid similar situations in the future.
But to be fair to Williams, not everything was in their control last weekend. With extremely wet conditions at Interlagos, crashes seemed imminent and Williams had the misfortune of both its drivers suffering big shunts in Qualifying itself.
Albon’s car was damaged beyond repair. And while the mechanics repaired Colapinto’s FW46 in time for the Grand Prix, he binned it midway into the race.
How the three crashes in Brazil have affected Williams
Colapinto’s second crash was as severe as the one Albon suffered in qualifying. It dealt a significant blow to Williams’ budget, adding to their already existing financial struggles. The total damage repair bill for the team in 2024 has now reached $7 million.
This is going to affect Williams’ developmental budget for the last three races of 2024. Moreover, with Alpine securing a double podium, they leapfrogged Williams (along with Haas and RB) to take P6 in the Constructors’ Championship.
While Haas and RB are still within touching distance of the French team, Williams is far off at ninth place, which is where Alpine was before Sao Paolo. It is highly unlikely that they will make ground, which would be a blow since the Grove outfit will earn lesser prize money for the 2024 championship and it will be a step back from the P7 finish last season.
