F1 team boss blames DECADES of underinvestment in scathing attack on infrastructure

Williams team principal James Vowles has blamed the previous regimes at Grove for the team's current poor performances.

The legendary team in F1 had been a family-run business for decades before the Williams family sold the company in August 2020, although they still run the famous name.

Vowles moved from Mercedes to one of the sport's slowest teams at the end of the 2022 season in order to take on the main role of team principal.

But he is not happy with what he claims is decades of underinvestment which has left the infrastructure at Grove woefully behind the times of modern F1.

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Money is disappearing

“Twenty years of underinvestment is why we are where we are today,” Vowles said, as quoted by F1i.

“But I’m in a fortunate position that my predecessors weren’t – where we have investment, significant investment, behind us.

“In fact, there is a strong desire to have Williams return back to a competitive position. But to do that requires investment. So the money’s available and ready.

“But in many regards, where we are today, that money is disappearing on what I think is basic infrastructure.

“So if I take an example of things that were in Williams, and this is being very transparent about it, when a designer releases a part, it sort of goes into a black hole.

“And then there are emails going backwards and forwards between production to try and find out where their part is, how it’s being upgraded, how big it is, how long it will take."

He added: “Normally, that would go into a digital system that can be tracked, so you understand actually, what the car gets made up of.

“And bear in mind, there are 17,000 components and by the time you have designers doing this 17,000 times, you get lost. So you have inefficiencies.

“That software to fix that isn’t, unfortunately, 100 pounds, but that’s millions, and even up to tens of millions if you get it right.”

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