Vowles has had a impressive career in Formula One as the chief strategist of Mercedes. He has won nine constructor's championships in is career with the silver arrows and Brawn.
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2022 was a year Williams Racing would definitely want to forget. The British constructor, which used to compete for driver’s and constructor’s championship at one point of time, is disappearing into oblivion of late. When Jost Capito took over from Claire Williams last season, fans had predicted an improved performance from the team in blue. However, things only went from bad to worse. Williams finished plum last at the end of the season, with only eight points to their tally. The result saw Capito’s departure and the team was left without a team principal for the 2023 season with a rookie in Logan Sargeant and a man who isn’t the most consistent driver in Alex Albon.
However, Williams had a decent performance in the season opening Bahrain GP on Sunday as Albon managed to finish in the points. The decisions seemed sound and the strategy did not seem out of place and if there is one person that can be credited to, it is their new team principal, James Vowles. Vowles has had a impressive career in Formula One as the chief strategist of Mercedes. He has won nine constructor’s championships in is career with the silver arrows and Brawn.
Read More – Only Aston Martin improved more than Williams from 2022: Alex Albon
Head of vehicle performance Dave Robson only had positive things to say about Vowles after the team’s performance in Bahrain. “I think over the last year or two some good work was done, I don’t think there’s much doubt about that – we started to understand the way we needed to go,” Robson said as per PlanetF1. “But I think James coming in with his recent experience of what the best looks like, I think does make a difference. And on that, I think that has re-energised everybody.”
“That coupled with the fact that the car ran so well at the test, which obviously that was based on things put in place months ago,” he added. “But I think those two things together, have had a palpable effect on the team.”
Alex Albon described the Bahrain Grand Prix as a difficult race but he was happy to finish in the top ten and pass Alpine, who finished six positions ahead of Williams in the 2022 standings. Albon moved up from 15th on the grid to earn a point for Williams in the opening race of a season for the first time since 2017. This was made possible by the streamlined design of the Williams FW45, which gave Albon a faster straight-line speed than many of his on-track competitors. His best lap at Bahrain in 2022 was 1.265 seconds slower than his fastest lap of the weekend. The only other team to lap more than a second quicker than they did the previous year was Aston Martin.
“The wind made the cars I think for everyone much more disconnected than yesterday,” said Albon. “So to have the pace we had under the circumstances, I have to say I’m super proud.” “Everyone I’m sure is looking at the Aston Martin right now on the podium and thinking what a step they’ve done. But we’re second [in lap time gain since 2022]. Where you look at us from last year to this year in this position, 12 months on, I have to say we’ve done an amazing job.”
