"There's a spark and it's fascinating to see": James Vowles feels Williams team starting to see light at the end of the tunnel

Williams F1 Team Principal James Vowles stated that the iconic British team have rediscovered their 'spark' after a very positive start to the 2023 season.

Vowles, who joined Williams from Mercedes at the start of the season, has guided the team to its first points finish in the first race in Bahrain, courtesy of Alexander Albon's P10. The former world champions have looked competitive in the first two races despite failing to score in Jeddah.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Vowles said:

"The best word I could use is ‘spark'. There's a spark and it's fascinating to see. There are shoulders lifted, there are heads held high now, there is really the direction that they can see where we're going and how we're moving forward."

"It’s a team clearly that have had a tremendously difficult winter and difficult few years even prior to that. But they can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the direction we're going in."

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"I think it's a key element of every aspect of the team" - Williams Team Principal

The Williams team boss stated the reasons behind his hiring of Canadian Frederic Brousseau to oversee the organization's planning and operations.

He said:

"A Formula 1 car is circa 15,000 components that have to be built, produced and fit together within the space of a few weeks. To get that properly done, you need an amount of planning across all of your organization and that's really what he brings to the table."

"He's done that at Pratt & Whitney, he's been there for over 20 years, he has good experience and good knowledge about how to bring thousands of people – in our case, hundreds – together in a key clinch moment. And especially under the cost cap; the more efficient you can be at doing that, the more money that's available to develop the car later. I think it's a key element of every aspect of the team."

The former Mercedes man added:

"Going forward, there's a technical leadership where at the moment, I have lots of people standing in and doing a great job, but we need to supplement them with good experience from industry."

It would be fascinating to see if Vowles brings any more changes to the Williams before the end of the season, both operationally and from the aerodynamic side. But it is good to see the team competitive once again in the sport.