James Vowles has signed a brand new long-term contract as he continues on as Workforce Principal at Williams, that means that he’ll stay on the head of the squad as they push to return to championship-winning glory.
Vowles joined the group forward of the 2023 season from Mercedes, the place he had acted as Motorsport Technique Director for 4 years. He beforehand held key engineering and technique roles at Mercedes, Brawn GP, Honda and BAR throughout 21 years within the sport.
Since then the Briton – who is simply Williams’ third Workforce Principal of their 48-year historical past – has been targeted on reworking the outfit as they appear to make their manner again to the entrance of the grid, following on from Dorilton Capital’s buy of the group in 2020.
To date in 2025, Williams have loved their strongest begin to a season since 2016, with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz recurrently clinching factors to offer the Grove-based squad a present place of fifth in the Teams’ Championship.
Their factors tally of 55 is greater than the whole factors scored by the group throughout the earlier three seasons mixed.
“I’m delighted to signal a brand new contract with Atlassian Williams Racing, which has felt like dwelling from the second I walked via the door,” stated Vowles, whose precise size of contract extension hasn’t been revealed.
“This iconic group has already given me some unimaginable recollections and we’re all united in our ambition to construct on our legacy and win World Championships once more.
“Over the previous two years we’ve got targeted on fixing the foundations, and now have a platform to go for glory within the years to come back.”
Matthew Savage, Chairman of Williams and Dorilton Capital, added: “We’re thrilled that James has signed a brand new contract with Atlassian Williams Racing and dedicated his future to finishing the mission that we’re on collectively.
“He has introduced expertise, power and strategic management to the duty of restoring Williams to the highest step of the rostrum. We aren’t there but however you’ll be able to sense the momentum we’re constructing at Grove and are enthusiastic about what lies forward.”
Lawrence Barretto, F1 Correspondent & Presenter, says…
Williams homeowners Dorilton Capital put loads of belief in James Vowles once they appointed him as Workforce Principal (he had important expertise as a part of the management group at Mercedes however no group principal expertise) and the information they’ve prolonged his deal proves they consider he has rewarded that religion.
Since becoming a member of in January 2023, Vowles had maintained that remodeling Williams’ fortunes from backmarkers to combating on the sharp finish is a long-term challenge – and that there would possible be short-term ache as they rebuild and revitalise each a part of the operation. When he talks about targets, he refers to 2028 and 2029 earlier than he anticipates an enormous step up, so important are the upgrades he and the homeowners suppose are wanted to remodel the group.
To date, it’s all going moderately nicely. Vowles pulled off a coup by signing Carlos Sainz, heading off competitors from Audi and Alpine – and the affect has been near-instant. Along with Alex Albon, they’ve shaped a formidable line-up who’re working seamlessly collectively and driving the group ahead.
And on observe, after under-promising, the group is over-delivering – they at present sit an outstanding fifth, having been tenth within the season earlier than Vowles took over. And issues are trying encouraging for subsequent 12 months too.
They switched all improvement focus to 2026, when sweeping new guidelines are launched, months in the past – and can concurrently profit from extra wind tunnel and CFD (or computational fluid dynamics simulation) working time than their speedy rivals within the first half of this 12 months due to their lowly end within the standings final 12 months.
Vowles’ plan seems to be working and the primary constructing blocks are in place, so it’s no shock that Dorilton have moved to lock him down for the foreseeable future.
