The priority
For the first time since 2017, the year in which it finished in 5th place in the world constructors’ ranking, the Williams is about to achieve its best result in the last five years: after four seasons at the bottom (and one in eighth position), the surprise arrival of James Vowles in this 2023 as Team Principal he contributed to reviving the historic Grove team, which currently is seventh two races from the end of the championship with a 7 point advantage over AlphaTauri. Overall, therefore, Williams has done a good job so far, even if Vowles wanted to underline the team’s current objectives, probably in contrast with the expectations of other enthusiasts: completing all the updates in preparation for the next world and put in the background the defense of the 7th place in the world championship.
The main reasons
A statement that appeared in a video published on the official Williams website, in which Vowles explained in detail the reasons for this priority: “We stopped work on this year’s car many, many months ago – commented the former Mercedes – this could mean that we are putting seventh place in the constructors’ championship at risk. However, I am very happy with the decision we made. The decision to discontinue development of the 2023 car was dictated by the desire to restore Williams to being a top-level competitor. Our goal is not to finish seventh or eighth in 2023, but to bring the team back to the forefront. It’s trying to find a balance between the underlying updates, systems and structures for next year’s car and the 2026 car. You simply can’t put all these elements in the same sphere and hope to achieve success in all of them. We want to take a step forward in 2024. We want to take a step forward in ’25 and ’26: It will take some time to get everything set up correctly. We need to go through a transformation and I would rather invest everything in that at the cost of upgrades this year.”
Concentration on tomorrow
Consequently, Wolff has no major concerns regarding the final result of this season, be it the current 7th place or eighth, especially after the excellent recent performances of AlphaTauri, coming back from the bottom of the table: “I don’t want to finish eighth in this year’s championship and we will fight with all our might until the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi to maintain seventh place – he underlined – but I am also aware that we are asking our racing team and our drivers to do it with one hand behind their back: that’s fine. I am still confident that our step and the decisions we have made will lead us to long-term success rather than short-term gain“.
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