Vowles explains Williams' strong start in F1 2025, admits that the infrastructure containers

James Vowles, director of William's team, attributed the strong early phase of his squad in the Formula 2025 to profits to the “low -hanging fruits” for his car and factory systems.

The British team had a fertile Bahrain-pre season test with the fastest time and the competitive long-term average values ​​compared to its midfield rival Alpine and Haas.

The new recruit Carlos Sainz, who succeeded the F1 test for the second year for the second year, he became second place on Friday in the highly interrupted opening training for the Australian Grand Prix of the season.

At the same session a year ago, although in the third round in 2024, Alex Albon fell so hard that the car was written off for the weekend, so that he was awarded the then team colleague Logan Sargeants car for the weekend.

When asked how positive the team was currently at the press conference of the team apprenticeship between the exercise meetings in Melbourne, Vowles said about Williams: “It is a team that went through so much pain, and when I joined a few years ago, you could feel it.

“I know that I am a man of science, but they could really feel this kind of difficult time the team has taken through, and that is not the case now.

“But actually an article that we have not talked about there is our future. So it's great what is going on now. I would call that the lowest fruits that we pick up on the way.

“There are some great things that happen in Grove that will come online more online in the next few years, and you can see it with people that it only builds this dynamic and this positive energy. What you see today is just a bit of a failure for it.

James Vowles, team leader, Williams Racing

Photo by: Getty Images

“But it's an FP1. It's great, it's nice to see, but it's an FP1. Let's wait until qualifying and race and a few races, which is why I will all bring to our future and the goal we go. “

Much of Williams in the spring of the previous year was achieved by the start of the FW47 at the 800 kg car weight limit from the off with the FW47. His predecessor was so difficult at the beginning that he gave away almost 0.5 SA round last year, since the team's design and manufacturing processes of the team had important inefficiencies.

This meant that parts were later produced than expected and had to consist of heavier materials in order to shorten the process as far as possible before lighter replacements could be built.

Albon suggested on Thursday that the FW47 produced faster lap times than expected, even though Vowles moved to play it down.

“I think where the car moved, we have to reassess because of some things, but it's about where we expected it,” he said.

“But what Alex spoke is one of the aspects – from a perspective – there is much more self -confidence than the car of the past year.

“Formula 1 is a strange business. There are no silver balls. There is no one who suddenly turns on a car and makes it better. “

For 2025, Williams switched to a pushhrod arrangement due to its rear wheel suspension and aligned Mercedes with the engine and gear supplier.

Vowles said that this helps with regard to the round time “help a small piece”, but insisted that his team's improvements were more likely to be due to his changes elsewhere.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

He explained: “What we have done in recent years to develop our tools and systems that create better vehicle dynamics, better aero, a better way to connect the car together at the moment, and that effectively makes the package better and better.

“However, it is really not a area. It is a highlight of a team that begins to work together. “

Vowles was also asked if he thought that Williams fell behind Aston Martin in relation to the development of facilities. The green team announced on Friday that the new wind tunnel in its heavily renovated factory was finally in operation.

But Vowles distracted the question and said: “We fell back 15 years ago, so it's no question from now.”

“We invested,” he added. “Aston has also invested and invested McLaren in recent years. The point of this investment is to try to determine where we were and to create a new future.

“Wind tunnel – without question, Aston's will be benchmark, but I feel comfortable with it.

“Where we are in the wind tunnel, let us see where we are, but we are slowly moving online, which is an indication that we probably use our facilities pretty well. In this regard, I think we're okay.

“Where we have other problems, there is within the organization's infrastructure, but we have plans to correct this in the next few years.

“It is not something you do overnight. So it is different – it is not so much back, we are already on this investment path. “

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