In Formula 1, Williams wants to make its way to the top – team boss James Vowles speaks of positive but still slow progress
“I don’t think we’ve turned a corner. I think we’re moving gently in the right direction.” That’s the interim conclusion of Williams team boss James Vowles in the 2025 Formula 1 season. The racing team has pulled itself out of the mire and is increasingly fighting for points in the midfield. Nevertheless, according to Vowles, there is still a lot to do. But what do Excel spreadsheets have to do with the momentum at Williams?
“Last year, the car was very heavy,” explains Vowles. “We didn’t have the right number of spare parts. We brought a lot of technology and ideas into play, but we couldn’t implement them all the way through. One of the biggest changes we’ve worked on over the past 24 months has been to ensure that we can deliver as quickly and cost-effectively as possible from concept to track.”
“That’s one of the most important changes – and you can see that in this year’s car,” says the team boss happily. “The car was ready on time, we had plenty of spare parts and were able to develop several updates over the course of the season. We brought several front wings and several packages with us. That’s a difference when you look at Williams’ history. Weight limit, the right product at the right time.”
No more Excel spreadsheets
And that’s where modern technology comes into play: “The second point is KPIs, which aren’t that exciting for the outside world because only I see them. Essentially, I look at how much we can get through our organization and our factory in any given week, whether it’s in production or design. So: How many approvals can we issue per week? How many of those can we get through production? How much do we outsource?“
”In a world with cost caps, we are now in a much better position,“ says the Williams boss. ”That gives me more budget to further expand and improve the organization. We no longer work with Excel spreadsheets. We now use modern ERP and PLM tools to design and build the car. That’s a big change.”
But personnel changes have also paved the way for success at Williams, as the team has grown massively, even if the top teams are still much larger. Clear communication is very important here.
More staff, more communication
“The next point is that we communicate. I know that sounds strange, but the organization has grown from 200 to 700, 800 people. Nevertheless, everyone stayed in their familiar environment and did everything the way they always did. That’s not how you succeed in modern Formula 1. You need 1,000 people working together as a team – not as separate units.”
Williams has also managed to resolve a number of problem areas: “Yes, the cooling problems are behind us. We made changes before Silverstone and put a lot of work into ensuring that they work the way we want them to. That cost us a few milliseconds. This weekend, it didn’t cost us anything.”
The upgrades to the car during the season are also going better than in 2024: “The update was actually planned for Zandvoort, not for Spa. But this year, we were able to significantly reduce the turnaround times – and that’s not the only example; we also had a front wing. We always ask ourselves: How can we get a product onto the track faster and cheaper without compromising on quality?“
Williams becomes more efficient
”Those are the three key levers. The Spa update is a good example of how the team has come together,” he says happily. “We went through the process and took risks. In Spa itself, there were only three parts – and that was on a sprint weekend in the rain. But it proved to be the right way to push the company forward.”
After 14 of 24 race weekends, Williams is in fifth place in the constructors’ championship with 70 points. In the 2024 season, the team finished second to last and rarely had a chance to score points. Progress is being made, even if it’s very close in the midfield of Formula 1. The gap to Red Bull is too big, which is why Williams will now do everything it can to defend fifth place against Aston Martin, Sauber, Racing Bulls, Haas, and Alpine.
