Williams F1 team to be rebuilt "from the foundations" - Vowles

Former Mercedes chief strategist Vowles joined the Grove outfit as team principal, with his official starting date listed as 20 February.

He has used his brief tenure so far to evaluate the 10th-placed outfit, which is currently without a full-time technical director to lead its in-season car development.

Vowles reckons the nine-time constructors' champion, bought by American investment firm Dorilton Capital in 2020, will have its reorganisation complete within the coming months as it seeks a "ground-up" rebuild.

He said: "On direction, [we are] clear on where we're going. We're in a good state in terms of getting what we need to in terms of technical structure in place.

"There's nothing to talk about yet but there will be I hope within the next few months.

"There's reorganisation going on all the time behind the scenes and pressure points really trying to squeeze the team and understand where we have strengths and where we have weaknesses.

"That's an ongoing process that will be the work of years rather than months."

With Williams having failed to finish in the top half of the constructors' standings since 2016, Vowles reckons the team will use its legacy and financial backing to sell itself to prospective engineers.

James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing

Photo by: Williams

This will form part of what he said would be a full-scale rebuild as the team has the capacity to "break what we have in existence" in order to climb the competitive order.

Vowles said: "The main thing is this: we're in a position that we can break what we have in existence, and rebuild it from the foundations, ground-up, into a solid mechanism.

"We have finance, we have investment that's available to us, as do a lot of teams. But irrespective, that is available to us at the moment.

"We have the willingness and desire to even compromise this year and next as needed and as required in order to make sure that we make the jump back [to the] forward of the field.

"That's a tougher decision if you're racing for fifth, or sixth in the championship but much easier when you're Williams.

"Then you have the legacy. It doesn't take long to walk around the [museum in Grove] and look at all the championship cars to realise the legacy this team comes with."