Moving from long-time strategy director at Mercedes – a role that latterly included overseeing adjacent racing activities such as Formula E and the young driver programme as well as calling pitstops – to become team principal at Williams was judged by many in the Formula 1 commentariat to be a bit of a leap. But not to the self-proclaimed ‘highly competitive’ man who made it…
WORDS STUART CODLING PORTRAITS ALISTER THORPE
You probably knew the voice before you saw the face. Soft-edged but empowered by the weight of authority, and destined to lap the Formula 1 internet for all eternity: “Valtteri, it’s James…”
James Vowles joined what was then known as British American Racing in 2001 as an engineer, one of the hundreds of F1 personnel the casual TV viewer might never see. He remained there through its several incarnations and built up its strategic facility from zero to a highly effective fighting force – but even then he remained relatively low-profile unless you were one of the select group of journalists invited by Mercedes to one of his fascinatingly detailed briefings.
That changed in the Liberty era, when greater deployment of team radio in ‘the show’ led to a more front-of-house role during a number of memorable exchanges, from apologising to Lewis Hamilton for not taking the opportunity to pit during a Virtual Safety Car in the 2018 Austrian GP to politely but firmly instructing Bottas to let his team-mate past in Sochi later that season. While there were some, including lesser media outlets, who saw this as a functionary being thrown under the bus by team boss Toto Wolff, either to take responsibility for a blunder or to deliver bad news, those who knew, knew: Vowles was instrumental to the big decisions that made Mercedes such a phenomenal fighting force… and unafraid to wear the consequences of the calls that went wrong. Little wonder that when Williams and Mercedes co-ordinated their announcements that he was to replace Jost Capito at the head of ‘Team Willy’, Merc’s headline was “Williams, it’s James…”
GP Racing: You’ve said that motorsport is one of your abiding passions, one of the things that keeps you happy – where did it all begin for you?
James Vowles: I think like many – as a child I watched it on TV. I’m highly competitive, I have been all my life. And that’s really what appeals to me, the ability to see a whole group of individuals who are focused the way I am, doing everything it takes to be just ahead of their rivals. But at the time I didn’t think this would be a professional career – I had no awar
