Team principal admits he's wary of upcoming rival upgrades

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Team principal admits he's wary of upcoming rival upgrades

He believes that his team could be in for a rocky end to the season

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 1 October 2023 21:57

Williams team principal James Vowles has said that his team are no longer developing their 2023 car, whilst their competitors clearly are.

The team look to be favourites to finish seventh in this year's constructors' championship thanks to the excellent performances of Alex Albon that has allowed them to rack up 21 points.

However, as we head into the final six races of the season, Vowles is worried about some of the development packages their nearest rivals have brought to the table.

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AlphaTauri are currently in 10th, but are only 16 points behind Williams, showing how close the bottom four teams are.

They have recently introduced a package that has looked impressive, with both Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson being closer to the top 10 in both qualifying and races since the Singapore Grand Prix.

"Our clear goal is to finish seventh in this world championship," he told the team's official X channel.

"There's been some great work done prior to this in order to bank up a bit of a points gap in order to give us the opportunity to do it, and there will be other races where this car remains very competitive to the field before the end of the season.

"What we can say is this, it's going to be close fought to the end of the year, with just a matter of points separating ourselves down to tenth place.

"The other element of things is that we know our competitors are bringing strong updates to the car, AlphaTauri brought an update in Singapore that looks to be very competitive.

"We know Haas will turn up in the next few races with, again, a performance step, and Alfa Romeo will continue to develop."

Williams on the up, and looking to 2024

There has been talk of Vowles looking to replace the underperforming Logan Sargeant

If Williams are able to finish higher than tenth, it will be just the second time in the last six seasons that they have avoided the wooden spoon.

Whilst Logan Sargeant's rookie season has been a bit of a struggle, the form of Albon has been so impressive, that Williams may even feel like they push towards the top five next season.

Whilst they do hope to manage to pick up some more points between now and the end of the season, their main focus is on building for 2024 and beyond.

"We're not [developing the 2023 car], we're focused on next year," Vowles continued. "A conscious choice, as I want to make sure we keep making steps up through, rather than fighting for one or two points in the current championship, and that carries risk."