“It has more importance in the fact that this team has been tenth, and properly tenth really. Pulling ourselves out of that trench and back into a fight where we are now scoring points fairly regularly and fighting into Q3 fairly regularly — we had our best qualifying result in Vegas but I think at the cost of race pace so maybe not the best example — but that strength of moving forward and the reflection of the whole season being locked away in a championship result of seventh, I think means a tremendous amount to the team.
“You can see it in body language, you can see it in reaction, you can see it is a serious turnaround for a team that’s been struggling for quite a few years.”
The financial gain also is regularly cited as crucial for teams further down the championship standings, but after revealing earlier this year that Williams is making huge investments in its facilities and infrastructure, Vowles uses the difference in finishing positions as a way of highlighting just what is needed to return the team to true competitiveness.
“It’s around $10million or so, but our commitment is that we are investing not $5million or $10million but hundreds of millions into Williams. I’ve been very vocal and honest about that simply because also that’s the implication of why diluting that amount is very painful to us.
“But we’re not going to get back to the front by messing around with tens of millions, you’re into big, big numbers now. So it helps, every income stream absolutely helps, but we’ve got to be clear that it is just a small fraction of the amount of money that we need to be spending at this point.
“Because our focus isn’t about whether we are eighth, seventh or ninth; it’s making proper significant steps up the field back towards the front.”
Alex Albon led the majority of positive results for Williams in 2023 — pictured here scoring at Monza ahead of Lando Norris
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To be fighting at the sharp end at some stage in future, Vowles knows he will need more than just money. The personnel that will lead the team and improve car performance are even more crucial, but have previously seen an iconic brand floundering at the back of the grid.
For the team principal, selling a move to a group that has just made a clear step forward is far easier as it proves there is potential in the project.
“What it does is it shows the outside world we are serious about going back towards the front. We have engagement now where we’re starting to get some really good individuals joining us from different teams. They’re not leaving us to go elsewhere, it’s the other way round, they’re joining us because they believe in the vision and the journey we’re on.
“One of those being Pat [Fry], and those are the significant steps. What you want is an upward spiral and momentum of belief from individuals that this is the journey that they want to partake on. They know it’s not a journey of one year or three years, it’s much longer than that, and yet they’re willing to give up great positions at current entities to come and join us, and I’ve seen that literally week-on-week now.
“So seventh helps create that beginning of a journey but also the correct starting point for people to really see that’s where we are and this is where we’re going.”
With continued development, could Williams become front-runners again?
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But with a significant gap in points to Alpine and an even bigger one to the top five, P7 for Williams doesn’t mean it’s going to be a continuous glide path that follows the same trajectory all the way to the top.
