(Motorsports news) After a three-month back-and-forth, James Vowles, who has been in charge of Williams since February, was able to persuade Alpine’s chief technical officer Pat Fry to join the Grove team as of November 1. The club hopes that this victory will allow it to lure additional top figures, but it’s more likely that the technical director who will report to Fry is a rival squad’s design second looking for a lead position.
Vowles claims that his leadership team is forced to shift focus away from the recovery strategy until Williams completely strengthens its technical division. The outfit is being put “on crutches” as a result. As ‘trusted lieutenants’ who can pass ideas down the line of command, Vowles says he wants to hire more people. He will be able to stop dividing his time between planning racing strategies, allocating funds, and attending F1 Commission meetings as a result.
“At the moment, we have a small leadership team that are cascading ideas,” the former Mercedes head of strategy stated. But as you increase the number of lieutenants you trust, you see an almost exponential increase in the number of people, training, and ideas you put in place. Presently, it is not the case. When he has more time, Vowles believes he will be able to concentrate on planning Williams’ next five years while Fry will “bring new design concepts to the fore.”
The situation today is that I’ll spend 10 minutes talking about what we’re doing technically for the upcoming races, 10 minutes talking about what we’re going to do strategically throughout the race, 10 minutes talking about how we’re going to spend money in three years, and 10 minutes talking about the F1 commission, said Vowles.
“Williams will become stronger the more I can concentrate on the areas where I believe I’ll be stronger, which is strategically over the next five years – how we move chess pieces into a good tempo. “The other thing is that, without a question, over the past ten or so years, Pat has been more technical and detail-oriented than I have been. His main source of income is that. Therefore, you will receive this inflow of fresh perspectives, notions, and ideas.
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