F1 team principal admits he’s already prepared to sacrifice the 2024 season

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Williams principal James Vowles has admitted that he’s already prepared to sacrifice the 2024 Formula 1 season to secure the long-term success of the team.

Vowles was speaking on the Sky Sports F1 review show looking back on the last 12 months of racing.

It was clear early on in the season that despite the grid closing up in terms of raw pace, there was a clear gap between the fastest and slowest outfits.

Aside from Red Bull, the top five teams were all relatively close at times, with different drivers challenging Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez throughout the year.

Alpine existed in a two-man midfield on their own finishing more than 150 points behind Aston Martin but nearly 100 points clear of the bottom four teams.

It went right down to the wire to see who would finish seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.

All eyes were on Yuki Tsunoda to see if he could develop enough points in Abu Dhabi to help AlphaTauri leapfrog Williams but ultimately he just missed out.

While James Vowles has admitted that he was very pleased with how Williams performed this year, he knows that success in 2024 isn’t guaranteed.

With big regulation changes coming in 2026, teams have some big decisions to make concerning their spending over the next couple of years.

It means Vowles could be forced to re-think his short-term plans to protect and enhance their future.

Williams boss Vowles willing to sacrifice 2024 campaign

Asked about the Grove-based team’s plans for next year, Vowles said: “We’re not simply going to step up and fight amongst the giants unless we take these large leaps.

“Now, the reason I admit that it’s brought all this tension is because it does come with performance but it also comes with risk at the same time.

“It also means that I’m prepared to still sacrifice 2024 if it means that we can keep making those large leaps and steps in 2025 and 2026.

“Because the truth is as satisfying as it was to finish seventh, that’s not what I want for the team.

“What I want for the team is the ability to have the infrastructure and systems that they can start fighting and we can start fighting for podiums and more.

“And you can’t achieve that by scratching around the same region, you’ve really got to change quite a bit of the deep, underlying infrastructure and foundations and belief of what you’re doing.”

Even the top teams might be wondering whether to write off 2024 given the current dominance of Red Bull, which might be affecting Vowles’s thinking when it comes to Williams.

However, that does risk star driver Alex Albon considering his future ahead of the end of his contract next year.

They can’t afford to lose the Thai driver who scored nearly all of their points last season.

Williams decided to stick with Logan Sargeant after a middling rookie season and he’ll be expected to step up this year.

If he can close the gap to his more experienced teammate then they should have two drivers challenging for points next season.