James Vowles makes brutally honest Williams admission as pressure cranks up

The former Mercedes strategy director is feeling the pressure at Grove after a pointless run-out at Silverstone in both the sprint and feature races.

Williams are eighth in the constructors’ standings with just 11 points from the opening nine races, a huge drop-off from the highs of fifth last season.

Since then, the new era of rule changes appears to have caught out the British squad, and Vowles was honest about what went wrong while speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Asked about the second half of the season, he told the event’s broadcasters:

The engineer also made an honest admission about how much he needed a weekend of enjoyment at Goodwood after driving the FW18 with which Damon Hill became 1996 world champion:

Vowles took over at Williams in 2023, which was seen as a major coup for the legendary nine-time constructors’ champions.

Considered as Toto Wolff’s future replacement at Mercedes, he quickly got to work at Grove after the low of a 10th-place championship finish in 2022.

Among the highs for the 47-year-old was the stand-out signing of four-time race winner Carlos Sainz from Ferrari in the winter of 2024.

Yet even the Spanish talent has admitted things aren’t quite going to plan, further piling the pressure on his boss.

Speaking to Mundo Deportivo ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Sainz was asked about Williams’ plans to challenge for the 2028 title, and if that’s been pushed back by the poor start to the new era of regulations.

He said: "I think it is now a realistic goal, but it is also true that the step backwards we have taken this year may have delayed that goal by a few months or a year.