The fact that he can fill important positions is a great help for Williams team boss James Vowles to concentrate on the areas he is good at
Williams team principal James Vowles has been able to fill an important gap in his team: namely, since the departure of Francois-Xavier Demaison, the racing team does not have a technical director, but from 1 November, Alpine’s chassis manager Pat Fry will join the team and fill exactly that role.
With this, Vowles has closed the next important position at Williams, which makes his job quite easier. “We’re on crutches trying to do ten things, and it’s always better to focus on one,” Vowles said.
He is happy to see his construction sites slowly diminishing so he can focus on what he does best and what he is there for at Williams. “I am not a strong engineer here, there are clearly better ones than me. But I am someone who has a vision of where we want to get to and leads people along that path,” he says.
“The more leaders we have, the more they can deploy the lieutenants who report to them, who will in turn deploy lieutenants. And that’s what’s missing at the moment.”
At the moment, he said, Williams only has a small leadership team to put forward his ideas. “But the more people you put in place, the more you train and the more ideas you have, the more lieutenants you have that you trust, and that leads to almost exponential improvement,” Vowles said.
The Englishman uses the term “lieutenant” intentionally in this context: “not because we’re associated with the military, but because I just like it,” Vowles explains. “It’s just someone you can rely on and close your eyes to when they’re doing something.” But such a structure does not currently exist at Williams.
“Currently the case is that I spend ten minutes on what we are going to do technically in the next races, ten minutes on what we are going to do strategically in the race, ten minutes on how we are going to spend money in three years’ time and ten minutes with the Formula One commission,” he says.
“And the more I can focus on the areas where I think I’m stronger, so the strategy for the next five years, how we’re going to turn the chess pieces into a strong pace, the stronger Williams will become, I think,” Vowles says.
And in that respect, Pat Fry has already helped him a lot – just technically: “Pat has been more involved with the technical details than I have over the past ten years. That’s his bread and butter,” he says. “It gives us input on new ideas and new concepts. “
