‘It doesn’t matter where we finish in the championship’

Williams team principal James Vowles tells Kieran Jackson that his team will not sacrifice the future for the now’

- Kieran Jackson

Two years into the project of a lifetime, James Vowles is keeping his ultra-focused head above the parapet.

Hunched over a table in his team’s hospitality unit, the Williams team principal is reflecting on a 2024 season of underachievement. In 24 races, his team recorded more crashes than points: 20 to 17. To say it was an expensive, energy-sapping campaign would be an understatement.

Yet ultimately, it does not matter. Nor does the upcoming 2025 season, even with Ferrari race winner Carlos Sainz, a coup of an acquisition, joining the team to partner Alex Albon. Nearly all of Vowles’ attention is geared towards 2026; a year of new engine and chassis regulations and, as such, fresh opportunity at the front.

“I will not sacrifice the future for the now,” Vowles tells The Independent. And even now, he is laser-sharp in his philosophy, fewer than 10 days out from the first race of the season in Australia.

“Above all else, the most important year is 2026. It doesn’t matter where we finish in the championship in 2025. It’s not that I don’t care, I do care. But the on-track performance is not an indicator of the lovely things going on at Williams.

“And that’s not a pair of handcuffs we put on ourselves. We need to see excellence coming into our organisation: the best graduates, infrastructure, and continuous movement forward in all areas. That’s the metric I stand by which is tangible, and I can control that moving forward.”