Former Mercedes strategy head James Vowles explains what makes a successful F1 team

Former Mercedes strategist James Vowles recently spoke about what makes a championship-worthy team in F1. Vowles knows a thing or two about building successful teams as he helped the Silver Arrows win an unprecedented eight consecutive F1 constructors' world championships.

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Vowles claimed that the people and the culture are the two main factors that drive a team to glory. He explained how machines and computers can improve the efficiency of a team, but having every member aligned toward the same goal is much more important.

"I'd always go back to people and culture. They're the two things that drive all of it. Machines help; they make things more efficient, computers help; they make things more efficient, but once you have a workforce that is 100% aligned with the direction of travel you're moving in," he said.

Furthermore, the former Mercedes senior touched upon the culture of a team, which should be to push the boundaries. He adds that a team should not be afraid to innovate and progress forward in engineering every single day.

"And a culture of one that is, push the boundaries, don't be afraid of the boundaries, don't be afraid to redefine what has happened in the sport previously, because that is the beauty of where we are as a journey. We are these small tiny, in the grand scheme of engineering, teams where we can push the boundaries of engineering, and we should do [that] every day of the week."

Even before Mercedes came into F1 and dominated the sport, James Vowles enjoyed his first World Championship with Brawn GP in 2009. He has been working with championship-winning teams for more than a decade.

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James Vowles on differences between Mercedes and Williams

In 2023, James Vowles made a big leap in F1, moving away from one of the most successful teams in recent history and joining a struggling team with a rich past. Back in May 2023, Vowles talked about the differences between the two teams.

"Mercedes had a well-organized structure. So you can imagine a larger team, with all the structures you can dream of, but also a lot of world champion experience. The pressure to win, to fight at a high level, everything was there, but everything was well organized," he said.

He added:

"Williams doesn't have all of this, it doesn't have such solid foundations, partly because the top teams took the best engineers, even from Williams, so we had to reorganize what we had."

James Vowles is currently on a mission to revive Williams and push them into the top half of the table, after which the team could start to aim for titles.