Technical director hard to find: Williams diligently searching

James Vowles has moved from strategic director at Mercedes in 2022 to team boss of Williams in 2023. The Williams chief is still looking for a technical managing director. And that is not easy.

Williams looking for technical director

Vowles, who comes from the clinical Mercedes team, the team that ruled Formula 1 for the previous decade, is now team boss at Williams. Williams has been at the bottom of the grid for years. The road back for the team is long, but with Vowles, it seems to have a competent leader on board. What the team does not yet have is a technical director.

Vowles says he is diligently looking for that. It is just difficult to find the right person who is also willing to take on the challenge at Williams. Thus F1.com quotes the Briton: "There are some great people up and down the paddock, but it’s finding the right fit for the organisation we have, the right fit for someone who wants to be in here growing it for not just one or two years but multiple years."

There is no rush. Vowles: "I’m just not rushing the process. I hope within six months we have a firm pair of feet on the ground. It sounds like a long time, but it’s got to be done right. It’s not about this year, it’s not even about next year, it’s about the long term." That is what Williams is about at the moment, and that is Vowles' challenge. Williams needs to reinvent itself, so to speak.

Vowles in splits at Williams

On the one hand, the Williams boss is happy that the sports company lives in a unique world where it can see if it is good enough every two weeks or so. On the other hand, alongside quick successes for a team like Williams, there is always the need to think about the distant future.

Vowles: "Williams has been torn apart through different mechanisms, one because it was a place where you could find incredible people so the top teams would take them. We are having to regrow what we had. The foundations aren’t proper stable foundations."