Williams F1 boss James Vowles has called for further changes to the F1 cost cap as works to close the gap between his team and the sport’s leaders.
Vowles joined Williams as team principal at the start of 2023, having been part of Mercedes in its era of dominance in F1.
As a result, he learns first-hand of Brackley’s systems and amenities, which contrast starkly with those of Grove.
Tasked with rebuilding Williams into the race- and championship-winning organisation it was, Vowles has expressed his opinion on what he believes are the shortcomings in the regulations.
Chief among these is the cap on positions, which has been widely credited with the suitability of the 10 groups and narrowing the gaps between them.
And while that’s largely the case, there are still key spaces of disparity that regulations well block, meaning groups like Williams simply can’t catch up.
“When I joined, and still today, we were late,” Vowles said during the most recent episode of KTM Summer Grill.
“There’s no doubt about it: the infrastructure we have has been obsolete for 20 years.
“I’ve been pretty vocal and public on it for good reason, because I wanted to make sure we start to invest in this site.
“Now, there are some beautiful things in sport, and one of them is the cap on charges. There is an operating charge and a cap on capital expenditures.
“It’s awfully complicated but the operation one is basically the salaries and building of the car, and that’s a really good cost cap.
“That’s why, in my opinion, the game is getting better and we’re getting closer.
“The momentary load limit is a capital expenditure, and any giant machinery or infrastructure that remains for several years is also fundamentally constrained.
“Again, this exists, but it hurts organizations like ours that have an infrastructure that my CFO described as dating back to the Ming Dynasty. »
Mid-season adjustments were made to the capital expenditure rules, allowing for investment.
Previously, they were limited to about $6 million a year, and in some spaces concessions were made for expensive works such as wind tunnels.
While this is a significant figure, it falls far short of what Vowles suggests his team wants to invest in catching Mercedes.
However, the Williams boss showed in October, when asked via Speedcafe, that adjustments had been made.
A sliding scale has been introduced allowing all teams to spend a predetermined amount on their position in the constructors’ championship.
For Williams, it will be $20 million.
“It’s a huge amount of cash to give out, it seems like a huge amount of cash,” he explained.
“$20 million seems like a lot, doesn’t it? That’s the extra amount we’ve been able to raise this year. And that’s a lot of cash in general.
“Unfortunately, in Formula 1, the amount of cash we need here to catch up is around $150 million.
“So that helps, but it’s just a sample of what’s going on, it’s the fact. “
“The first thing is that we’re moving to sort of a list of all the assets that we want that will drive functionality or reliability or reduce structure prices internally; Either way, we’re prioritizing all the assets we want. Then, let’s go through that list from the most sensible to the last,” he added.
“I can already tell you that the $20 million spent, that’s not the right word, yet it was claimed in milliseconds. “
The challenge for Vowles is to identify the spaces that have the highest demand for investment and take them on first.
“A lot of this will be due to simulation mechanisms,” Vowles explained.
“I’ve talked a lot about simulators, for example ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).
“We don’t have structures or systems — which are starting to be installed — that allow us to know how many parts are in the car and how they’re built together.
“It’s a building block. That’s what I meant by structural loading and reliability. These fall into those categories, but now they’re a must-have; you can’t build a car without them. “
“And then there’s other areas that will help us in testing environments, in suspension environments, etcetera.
“I’m satisfied with that,” he added.
“What we want to do now is obviously a way to continue to close that hole in the front.
“We have a willingness to spend money, we just need an environment where we can do that that’s fair and equitable relative to other teams.
“We’re still there. “
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