James Vowles sets lofty new Williams targets after Silverstone success

Williams

Vowles sets lofty new Williams targets after Silverstone success

Williams climbed to P7 in the constructor standings after scoring more points at Silverstone, but the work is not yet done

Harry Smith

Friday 21 July 2023 14:22 Updated: 14:31

Williams' team principal James Vowles has insisted that the team will push forward and that P7 in the constructor standings is not enough to satisfy his demands.

The Grove-based team have been making steady strides forward in the past few races with Alex Albon adding a vital four points to the team's tally thanks to an impressive drive at Silverstone.

The Thai-British driver now boasts all 11 of the team's points to his name, but Silverstone also saw Logan Sargeant clinch his best finish of the season, crossing the line in P11.

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Williams' American rookie has shown clear signs of improvement in the past few races and will be key in the team's extended battle with Haas and Alfa Romeo.

Williams looking forward

“It’s important for the team," Vowles explained ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, as quoted by The Race. "The team has had quite a few years of a pretty hard time, to be honest.

"And any team like that, you need to have a positive momentum moving forward in order to generate the workflow to go further again.

“I’m not interested in being seventh in the championship, I’m interested in being far higher than that. And that’s achieved by building on this at the moment.”

Alex Albon converted more points for Williams at the British Grand Prix

Vowles then touched on the need to break old habits and lay down a new working culture at Williams if the team is to progress further than the lower end of the midfield.

“The hardest thing to do is to change and adapt and break existing systems in order to move forward.

“And irrespective of the fact we’re seventh, we still have to rebuild a number of systems that are not where they need to be.

“Because otherwise we’ll be fighting in this region, but not necessarily at the front which is where we want to be.”