Only addressing ‘low hanging fruit’ sees transformed start for Williams in 2025

Despite being one of Formula One’s most storied and decorated teams, recent history for Williams Racing has been less than kind. With the former world champions having finished last in the standings on four occasions since 2018.

In a pleasing change for the once-mighty team, the legendary squad now led by James Vowles has seen a night and day change in its outlook between not only their last visit to the Australian Grand Prix – but the opening two rounds of the season.

Williams leave the initial duo of events having scored 17-points courtesy of Alex Albon’s fifth place finish in the chaotic wet Australian Grand Prix, securing the Grove outfit’s best result in a season opener since 2017. Before backing this up with seventh in China, as well as star recruit Carlos Sainz inheriting a point.

Off the back of pre-season testing, where Sainz recorded the fastest overall time – there was a buzz building around the Williams team. And while testing results aren’t much to typically be read into, seeing it translate into a second-fastest lap in FP1 at the Australian Grand Prix was cause to be optimistic.

In stark contrast to the team’s state following first practice in 2024’s Melbourne event – when Albon shunted at Turn 6 and the beleaguered Williams were without a spare chassis due to prioritising well overdue procedural updates in the off-season as supposed to prepping a spare.

Controversially, Vowles made the hard decision to bench then driver Logan Sargeant to allow Albon the opportunity to score points in the American’s chassis. A decision that ultimately yielded nil for Williams, as the Thai driver finished in eleventh.

Appointed Team Principal in 2023 following a long and successful run with Mercedes as Motorsport Strategy Director and the previous guises of the Brackley team such as Brawn GP and prior to that the works Honda team.

Finished seventh in 2023, then regressed to ninth with the emphasis on developing a car with all-round performance and not just peaks that would only be achieved at specific races – such as Monza.

Speaking to the media during the Team Representative’s press conference ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Vowles was asked about the current positive feeling in the team – including four-time race winner Sainz’s integration into the squad.

“It’s a team that’s been through so much pain, and when I joined a few years ago, you could feel it.”

“I know I’m a man of science, but you really could feel this sort of difficult period that the team had been through. That’s not the case now.”

“You can see it in individuals, it’s just building momentum and positive energy. What you see today is just a little bit of a fallout from that.”

What was also fascinating and promising to hear, was how the evident progress that Williams have made even between 2024 and 2025, was all down to addressing what Vowles described as ‘low hanging fruit’.

“One item we didn’t talk about in there is our future. It’s great what’s going on now. This is what I would call the most low-hanging fruit that we’re picking up on. There are some great things happening back in Grove and there will be more coming online over the next few years.”

“That’s also why I’ll bring everyone to our future and the destination we’re going towards.”

In response also to a question regarding Aston Martin’s new wind tunnel, which the Silverstone based outfit confirmed went online ahead of the season opener Vowles bluntly remarked that he ‘is comfortable with where we are.’

“We fell behind 15 years ago, so it’s not a question of now. We’ve been investing, just as Aston Martin has been investing, and McLaren has been investing for the last few years. The point of that investment is to try and stem where we have been and create a new future.”

“We’re moving slowly up the grid, which is an indication we’re probably using our facilities fairly well.”

“Where we have other issues is elsewhere within the infrastructure of the organization, but we have plans in place to rectify that over the next few years.”  

Nothing but positive noise from the articulate Vowles, which after the results of the race itself now have the evidence to show Williams’ progress is genuine. Regardless of whether Sainz completed his debut race for the Grove team or not – having suffered a ‘massive power surge’ prior to crashing at the final corner during the early Safety Car period.

Though even in that, Vowles glowingly credited the Spaniard for his strategic insight on the pit-wall. With his own race done early, Sainz directly provided valuable input to the decision for Albon to switch back to the intermediate tyres late in the race.

At last, since the famous Williams family sold the marque that was founded by the legendary Sir Frank to Dorilton Capital in 2020, is the future looking bright for the nine-times constructor’s world champions.

And if what Vowles says about them only having rehabilitated the low hanging fruit, then the sky is the sealing for Williams. Though in the Briton’s own words, “F1 is a strange business; there’s no silver bullet.”