Williams Team Principal Only 'Encouraged' By How Far Behind His Team's Facilities Are

F1
Thursday, 11 January 2024 at 19:00
Updated at Friday, 12 January 2024 at 05:54
albon alex williams car12
Williams's team principal, James Vowles, explained in his recent interview why he likes the current state of his team despite the big issues.
Williams F1 team's new CFO Pat Fry, who joined the team shortly after James Vowles, recently said the team is 15-20 years behind its rivals in some aspects.
That is a huge claim that indicates the British team should not be able to compete for the Championship in the near future. On the other hand, James Vowles tried to describe how he saw the issue. He told Motorsport.com:
“"I like it. And here's why I like it. This team has done incredibly well before I joined, and even when I've been here, because it's driven by passion. It's a true racing team."”
Williams finished seventh in the 2023 Championship despite having outdated facilities, structures, infrastructure, and methods and also basically not bringing almost any upgrades to their car.
“"Any time I keep looking at our facilities, structures, infrastructure, methods, and realise how far behind we are, I'm only encouraged by it."”
Having achieved so much despite all the setbacks shows immense potential in the British team, according to the team principal. He added:
“"We're here where we are today, and I can't wait until we get a lot of it fixed because we'll be in a much better place. And in a short space of time too, because there's quite a bit, still, of low-hanging fruit left over that we can pick up."”
Alex Albon explained the British team had written off last season as soon as it began to focus on the 2024 car instead. Still, he was able to collect 27 points with the car that wasn't even meant to finish in the top ten.
The team has had quite a lot of time to focus on this year's new car and therefore Williams might be a team to look out for in 2024.