Williams boss James Vowles insists the F1 team has made a “major leap forward from last year”

Williams team principal James Vowles has recently claimed that the backmarker F1 team has taken massive strides in the right direction in the 2023 F1 season, especially when compared to their performance over the past few years.

As quoted by formu1a.uno, the former Mercedes strategist initially admitted that Williams are several years behind in certain areas simply because there was not enough investment in those departments to upgrade the team. He explained:

"Williams is about 20 years behind schedule in some areas. And I'm not surprised, because in all these years there has been a lack of investments to be able to update the structures, which are thus left out of date."

Later on, Vowles confidently claimed that his team have moved forward from last year in terms of pace and performance. He also mentioned Aston Martin and stated that they are not the only team that has skyrocketed in performance. He concluded:

"I know that many see Aston Martin and the progress made, but we are no less. We've made a major leap forward from last year to this part, it's just not always seen or said, but I get it. But here in Canada we have also earned our space on TV"

Williams recently brought major upgrades to the Canadian GP as well, which successfully improved their performance. The new package included a new floor, suspension, and rear wing. It allowed Alex Albon to secure a position in the Q3 qualifying session and finish seventh in the race, which was quite surprising and praised by many.

---

James Vowles long-term plan to make Williams a midfield team

There is no surprise that Williams are currently a backmarker team in F1. Though Alex Albon occasionally manages to get a good result if the FW45 is strong enough on a particular track, the team are still struggling to keep up with others in the midfield.

New team principal James Vowles is well aware of the situation and spoke about how much time the team will take before it can comfortably compete in the midfield. Talking to Speedcafe, he said:

“The car we have here is a reflection of the work of the winter, the work of last year, not a reflection of the steps that we need to move forward with. I don’t think my timeline has changed, but to completely lay it out, it’s not in one year or two years that I think we’re going to put ourselves onto a track where we’re really properly into the midfield, it’s multiple years. Because simply the infrastructure alone, just building that, will be 18 months from today if we broke ground now.”

Williams are currently second-last in the constructors' championship with seven points. They are currently fighting for seventh place in the table with Alfa Romeo and Haas.