Williams racing announced Mercedes strategy chief James Vowles as their new Team boss .James Vowles represented the Silver Arrows since 2010, and served as their Motorsport Strategy Director over the last four years.
He played a key role as race strategist for Brawn GP and helped the team and Jenson Button to win the F1 Constructors’ title and F1 Drivers’ Championship respectively .
Talking of the new appointment, Dorilton Capital Chairman Matthew Savage said: “We are delighted to welcome James to Williams Racing.
“He is one of the most highly respected talents in Formula 1 and will bring performance. He has been a key part of some of the most impressive feats in the sport over the past 15 years.
“As we continue our relentless pursuit for results, we believe that the appointment of James reinforces our dedication to ensuring we have energetic, experienced, and strong leadership as we move into the next phase of transforming Williams Racing.”
James Vowles said ,“I cannot wait to start with Williams Racing. It’s an honor to join a team with such an incredibly rich heritage. The team is an icon of our sport, one I greatly respect, and I am very much looking forward to the challenge.
“Williams Racing have placed their faith and trust in me, and I will do the same in return. The team has tremendous potential, and our journey together starts in a matter of weeks.”
On his departure from Mercedes team, James said ,” Mercedes have been hugely supportive on my journey, and we part on excellent terms after over 20 years of working in Brackley.
“I am grateful for everything Toto [Wolff] and the team have provided, and it has been such a special experience to journey together through failure and success.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was delighted at the news of James appointment .He said , “Having worked with him since I first joined the team in 2013, I know how diligent, capable and talented he is and have taken great satisfaction from watching James develop and grow over the past decade.
“While we are naturally sad to be saying goodbye, we wish him every success and are delighted that he will take this next step in his career with Williams, a strong technical partner of ours and one that has a place close to my own heart.”
Can Mercedes manage without James Vowle ?
James Vowle has stayed with Mercedes since its inception in F1.Toto wolff confirmed that there is no gap left behind by the departure of Vowle .
Toto said,”There is no gap [left] behind. Since many years, we have discussed the succession planning in this area. We have been very reliant on James’ ability. With this we put an emphasis a few years ago on how that would continue if he would decide to do something else, within Mercedes or outside.
“James was very good at setting that up. We have an extremely talented team of strategists. We have nine people, some very senior that are not always on the frontline, and some that have grown within the organization.
“They have flown the aeroplane now alone in the last six months, and before that already very much just under James’ supervision, so I feel very comfortable in the structure going forward, and not that suddenly a big weakness has been created.”
Is Williams a mini-Mercedes ?
Williams racing have been using Mercedes Power Unit for a long time now . Over the years ,Williams have also increased their technical partnership with the Silver Arrows and now with James Vowle joining Williams have raised eye brows over Mercedes’ raising influence on Williams .
However James Vowle clarified that Williams is not a “mini-Mercedes” . He said , “I wouldn’t consider it a mini-Mercedes .Williams is an incredibly independent team in its own right, which has formed its own history, its own heritage.
Williams is an entirely independent organisation, and furthermore, it’s one that my success is subject and dependent on me doing a good job there, and that has to be independent of Mercedes.
“It doesn’t mean that Mercedes and ourselves won’t have collaboration in some form or another, there was collaboration before I joined, but I have to do what is best for Williams from here onwards.
“An interesting analogy I bring to the party is that I met with MI6 about 10 years ago, and we described all the techniques that we do within Formula 1, and many of them mirror, but the one that doesn’t mirror is this one, the concept of double agents.
“The second, just now fundamentally, that you put a crisp Williams shirt on, that’s where you are, that’s where your loyalty is, and that’s where my success and the team’s success will come from.
“There’s no mini-Mercedes or B-team, or any of that notion. This is about me standing on my own two legs and making a success with an organization around me.”
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Peace ✌️
