F1 News: Williams Looking to Break Cost Cap To Upgrade Their Archaic Infrastructure

James Vowles moved to Williams and noticed some elements to be 20 years out of date. A tech and staff revamp is the need of the hour.

James Vowles noticed a number of areas and elements that needed urgent upgradation when he recently moved from Mercedes to Williams as Team Principal. 

Switching from a team that won eight consecutive championships to a team that is currently in survival mode, Vowles comes with all the knowledge and skill required to make a team compete in the front row. 

Williams has been consistently finishing bottom in four of the past five seasons. When asked by Motorsport.com about the contrast in working with teams that are a world apart, he says:

"I think everything. There are not many, but some elements of the organisation that are of a similar level to Mercedes.

There are some elements that are 20 years out of date, which makes sense if you think through the history of this team. The investment it had was zero for around about 20 years and then an investment firm came through.

Fundamentally, we're in a situation where a lot of facilities were almost preserved from where they were 20 years ago.

Composites is behind what I knew when I first joined the sport with a different team 20 years ago..."

Vowles not only talks about upgrading the team's paraphernalia but also the staff. The staff must evolve to cater to the level of excellence that exists today as opposed to the standards that were in place many years ago. He says: 

"If you took a group of people and hid them away, and another group of people hid them away, they evolve to different stages. And that's what's happened, the view of what excellence is is completely different to what it really is today, and you have to move things forward.

Internally, a lot of the work I've been asking them to do has been likened to asking us to do three years of development in six months. Yes, but that's the standard. In fact, the standard is higher than that.

This is where I think we have to have a middle step. You have to show people the pathway, lead them down the pathway and make sure you support them and provide them with the equipment that allows them to do the same thing.

The other thing on people is that very clearly at Mercedes, you could attract near enough anyone you wanted one with phone call."

Luckily, the Williams team understands the severity of the problem and the sense of urgency required to stay afloat. And they're willing to cooperate with Vowles in this journey. 

Williams' Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson commented that the staff now understands that there is "more to do than we thought there was. Getting his (referring to Vowles) experience of what state-of-the-art genuinely looks like has been quite enlightening."

Vowles goes on to say: 

"If the organisation had rejected me, we would have had a problem. But it hasn't, it's done the complete opposite.

This organisation knows that we need to change that we need to move on. That we need to evolve to have success, and everyone is ready to do that."

The new team chief is now aiming to break the cost cap so they can bring in more investment to revamp the infrastructure. To do so, the team will require help from Formula 1 and the FIA. 

As of today, the capital expenditure limit for the teams is $36 million dollars for a period of four years. The amount won't be sufficient for large investments unless the teams request a specific exemption, like in the case of Aston Martin which was able to get a new wind tunnel.

Vowles says that Formula 1 and the FIA have been supportive in this matter. 

"Within the first week of being here, I showed them: This what I had a Mercedes, here's what I have at Williams. There's zero chance that we will be able to compete with this.

And I think where we are now is that by July that will be signed and teams like ourselves will be able to invest to catch back up."