James Vowles has discussed how he made a key change to the Williams operation since becoming team principal by encouraging different factions of the outfit to ‘talk to each other’.
The former Mercedes strategy director joined Williams at the beginning of the season, and hoped to turn around years of poor results.
Last year, the team came dead last in the constructors’ standings and earned eight points across the entire season.
So far this year, the team have won 15 points – all at the hands of Alex Albon – and they sit in seventh place in the constructors’ championship.
Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Vowles spoke on track about his plans for the team and the changes he had made.
One key change, he explained, has been to improve communication in the organisation, saying that while Williams employs ‘a lot of very skilled people… they weren’t necessarily talking to each other’.
Vowles said that he plans to go ‘faster and faster’ after ‘many years’ of difficulty for the team, explaining: "This team has been – I would say, suffering for many years.
“And they're starting to see that, through hard work, through direction/traction, we can move this car forward and we are moving this car forward, and these sort of results you'll see will catalyse the change, and will allow us to go faster and faster."
Asked if he changed much upon beginning the job, Vowles said: "The most things that I changed, were actually getting individual groups of people to talk to each other.
“The organisation has a lot of very skilled people inside, but they weren't necessarily talking to each other.”