Vowles in Williams
The first year of James Vowles as Team Principal turned out to be more than positive for the former Mercedes chief strategist, especially at the top of a team like the Williams. The Grove company, whose main objective is to recover from a long period of crisis, has actually made progress with the British engineer at the helm, even if the results obtained certainly cannot be compared to the magical ones of the 1980s and '90. Consequently, in 2024 the team's constant rebirth project will continue to fill the gap with the other teams, but all this could be favored by further changes to the budget cap. This, at least, is what Vowles himself asks for, well aware of the differences between the structures present in a top team like Mercedes and those in Williams.
Limits on capital expenditure costs
The maximum cost limit imposed on the teams actually contributed to improving the economic situation of each team, as well as reducing the gap between the ten participants. However, according to Vowles, there are still some regulatory shortcomings which do not allow Williams to recover in terms of competitiveness: “When I arrived we were behind, and we are still behind today – he explained in the last episode of KTM Summer Grill – there is no doubt that the structures we have are twenty years out of date. I was pretty vocal about it for good reason, because I wanted to make sure we started investing. Now, there are some good and lovely things about this sport, and one of them is the cost cap. There is a limit to operating costs and a cap on capital expenditure costs (CapEx). It's terribly complicated, but the operation is fundamentally about salaries and making the cars, and that's a great cost cap. That's why in my opinion the sport is improving and the teams are getting closer. The second cost limit is a capital expenditure, and that means that any machine or large infrastructure that you have maintained for multiple years also becomes limited. Again that's a good thing, but it hurts organizations like us that have infrastructure that our CFO described as dating back to the Ming dynasty“.
The rise to 20 million dollars
For capital expenditure, initially limited to $6 million per year, changes were made mid-season to allow teams like Williams to be able to invest, with the limit increased to 20 million. However, despite recognition by Vowles, other maneuvers are still necessary for the latter: “20 million dollars seems huge, doesn't it? This is the additional amount we were able to obtain this year. And that's, in normal worlds, a lot of money – he added – unfortunately, in Formula 1, the amount of money we really need to reach the top is around $150 million. The first thing is that we list internally every single resource that we need that can generate performance, reliability or reduce build costs, whatever it may be. We basically prioritize all the resources we need and then work our way down the list from top to bottom. I can already tell you that the $20 million has been spent“.
Where to intervene
Vowles, in addition, identified the areas in which it is necessary to make investments with higher priorities: “A lot of it will be about i simulation mechanisms – he concluded – and I've been very vocal about it. We don't actually have any structures or systems – which are starting to be implemented – that allow us to even know how many parts are in the car and how they are built together. That's what I meant by build cost and reliability, and then there are other areas that will help us for the tests, for suspensions, etc. What we need to do now is, of course, find a way to close the gap with the leaders again. We have the will to spend money, but we need an environment in which we can do so fair and equitable compared to other teams. We're not quite there yet“.
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