Since James Vowles took over as team boss at Williams in Formula 1 in 2023, it has been clear that the goal is a major restructuring of the technical management of the traditional British racing team. With the confirmation of no fewer than five prominent new recruits on the sidelines of the Austrian GP, Vowles and Williams are now leaving no room for doubt.
At the top of the list: Matt Harman. He will take over as Design Director after the summer break. Harman left his post as Technical Director at Alpine just at the start of the season. His appointment is hardly surprising in the larger context. In his 24-year F1 career, he was also at Mercedes at the same time as Vowles.
After Harman moved to Alpine in 2018, he also served under Pat Fry from 2019. This veteran F1 engineer started working at Williams, namely as Chief Technical Officer. Now Harman will work under Fry again. But he is by no means the only new hire.
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In a press release, Williams openly mentions a total of 26 new recruits, four from Red Bull, ten from Alpine, and others from Mercedes and Ferrari. Among those notable is Fabrice Moncade, who will be Chief Engineer for Computing Science from July 1st. He was previously Head of Performance Analytics at Ferrari, and before that was part of the Mercedes World Championship teams, as well as at McLaren and Sauber.
After 14 years at Red Bull (and 22 in F1 overall), Steve Winstanley is also joining Grove as Chief Engineer for Composites and Structures. Juan Molina is a senior aerodynamicist from Haas who previously worked at Red Bull. Molina will work under Adam Kenyon, who was promoted to Chief Aerodynamicist in April.
Finally, Richard Frith joins as Head of Performance Systems. He is another man from the Alpine connection, where he was Head of Performance. In his career spanning 25 years, he has also worked for Jordan, Sauber and McLaren, among others. Away from the technical staff, Williams also boasts the appointment of Sorin Cheran, who worked for HP Enterprise for 17 years, as Chief Information and Analytics Officer.
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“We are on a mission to fight our way back to the top and bringing in experienced, championship-ready talent from other teams shows great belief in the path we are taking,” said James Vowles. “Williams is investing in what it takes to win and this is just the beginning as we prepare to welcome more new faces from various places in the field over the coming months.”
The team clearly emphasises again in the press release: In the long term, the goal is to win more world championship titles. For this purpose, Alex Albon’s contract was extended early this year. The team is currently trying to convert its ambitious moves on the F1 market into a driver coup. For weeks, the team has been courting Carlos Sainz, who currently has to choose between Williams, Audi-Sauber and Alpine.
2024 is still a year of change for Williams. The attempt to take a step forward with a major redesign of the car in 2024 proved to be a major problem in view of the structural deficits that still existed at the same time, resulting in delayed parts and even a race with only one car due to a lack of spare parts. For years, the team had even used Excel to manage its inventory within outdated structures.
Vowles is now trying to get the team back on track as quickly as possible and is not afraid of making major personnel and structural changes. The team’s owners, Dorilton Capital, are fully behind the plan so far.