Vowles joined Williams in January and understands the magnitude of the challenge he faces in lifting the team from the depths of the standings.
In a column published on the Williams website last week, the former Mercedes strategy director suggested that he has little interest in putting all his efforts into improving the current car.
“We’re looking to build a foundation that stays here not for one year, but rather for three to five years,” he said.
“It takes time to put them in place, it takes time to cement them and for them to take hold. What we can’t do is sacrifice any of those elements for the short-term benefit of FW45.”
Pushed in Bahrain to clarify if that meant there would be no improvements for the FW45 during 2023, Vowles explained that while there would be some work on development – since the wind tunnel would still be working – he was clear on where the main focus lay.
“There’s a balance, certainly,” he said. “But fundamentally, the intent within the organization is incredibly clear.
“If you have a choice between making a decision that makes us better next week or a decision that can make us significantly better six months from now, 12 months from now or 24 months from now, you go with the latter of those two decisions.
“However, you still have a wind tunnel, and it has to go through the normal performance evaluation process. And I’m sure it will result in performance that we can add to the car this year.”
Vowles is clear that he is happy to leave key technical roles in his organization empty for the time being if he knows that high-quality candidates will be coming in the long run.
“We’re certainly not going to take shortcuts to fill technical roles, for example, with people we can get in six months rather than 12 or 24 months,” he said.
“We’re going to get the right people and put the right people in place. In terms of the basic structures for the car as well, we’re not going to rush next year’s chassis.
“We’ll make sure we go about it the way I usually do: taking our time, but making sure we pick up chunks of performance as we go along.”
Vowles has spent the last few weeks trying to get a better grasp on where the team needs to improve.
While he thinks his analysis will take some more time, he is already aware of how long it will take the team to reach its goals.
“Over the last 15 years, the team has gone through tremendous challenges, financial and otherwise, and it has survived all of that,” he said.
“But it’s only survival compared to other organizations that have had finances. And that’s the luxury I had before I joined the club.
“As a result, there are big differences between where we are today and where we need to be in the future. And the order of magnitude, the cost cap is a limiting factor for all of those things, simply because it puts us in a position where there’s a limited amount of CapEx, and that’s not going to be enough to spend our way to success as I would probably define it.
“The pathway is, to some extent, a number of years required to get some of the basic facilities to the level required to complete up front. And it’s not the six or twelve month job.
“In addition, as I’ve said before outside, we’re in a position where we’re short of key technical personnel and the team is certainly under pressure right now to make sure we fill those gaps as best we can. So, the road ahead is not a matter of months, but years.”
