Getting to know the real James Vowles

Over the last year or so, we have been putting drivers to the test with our Getting to Know questions. Now it’s the turn of their team bosses as we work our way up and down the grid – starting with Williams’ James Vowles. From his early days riding horses and driving tractors to his all-time F1 heroes, and his best friends in the paddock to his proudest moment in the sport so far, he shares everything in the video player above and the transcript below…

Can you describe yourself in three words?

Competitive, that’s for sure. Passionate – I love this business. And probably the final one would be strong. You can treat that as a negative or as a positive – strong-willed, but also strong in my belief.

What made you fall in love with F1?

It’s filled with the most incredible… first of all, athletes. The drivers are just elite athletes performing at the highest level. You’re surrounded by them, and they bring you strength you never knew you had inside you. It’s the same within the team, you work in amongst peers that are built how you’re built as well, which is [that] every moment of your life is about making a car go around a track faster. Ultimately that’s it, that you’re aligned by one goal, which is to win. I fell in love with the fact that it’s this group of individuals brought together with the same, unified goal.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - FEBRUARY 27: James Vowles, Team Principal of Williams is interviewed in the — Vowles took on the role of Williams Team Principal shortly before the 2023 season

When and where did you first drive something? We had an interesting answer from one of your drivers, Alex Albon, who told us that he drove a go-kart around Disneyland and cried afterwards… I’m not sure if you have a similar story for us?

(Laughs) I definitely remember from a really young age I wanted to be going as fast as I could. So, when I was reasonably young, I was [on] horses – horses were how I’d go quick. I broke a lot of bones on horses, I have to say! Skiing as well, I used to go quick skiing. But [in terms of a] motorised vehicle, from the earliest age that you could ride or drive, I was doing so. I did a little bit of go-karting before I drove on the roads, but nowhere near of course anywhere to the drivers’ level – just a little bit.

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I had a motorbike when I was 16, which was allowed where I was in Switzerland, then another motorbike when I was 18, and a car when I was 18 as well. So, whatever vehicle I could get hold of, I would drive. That’s probably the best way of putting it! [Also], my grandfather’s tractor… I never cut the lawn with it, but definitely rode the tractor. That was from four or something, I used to take that out, so there you go!

Lando Norris said he used to jump on a lawnmower when he was younger as well, but he added weights to it as he wasn’t heavy enough to start the engine…

(Laughs). There you go! So, we have something in common.

When was the last time you cried with laughter?

That’s a good question. It feels like it wasn’t that long ago, but I can’t remember about what, particularly. It doesn’t happen very often. Jack Whitehall was pretty funny at The O2 [F1 75 Live event], I’ll tell you that much. I was backstage for parts of it so you couldn’t see my laughter. I’m not sure if I was crying, but I was definitely laughing.

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Who’s your best friend inside the paddock?

Good questions… I still have a huge amount back at Mercedes, for no other reason than I spent 20, 22 years of my life there, so you build up relationships. One of those individuals is at Ferrari today, still I consider him to be a really close friend, albeit I haven’t spoken to him in a few weeks. All over, really. It’s the same with drivers. I’ve worked with drivers for a lot of their career and consider them close friends. That includes Lewis [Hamilton] as well. He’s a fantastic individual who I feel privileged enough that he lets [me] into his life as a result of it.

Which three F1 personalities past or present would you invite to a dinner party and why?

Wow… I’d bring Ayrton [Senna], just because he’s why I’m here today. I’d pick his brains on just what made him special, what made him who he is, how he differentiated himself, how he believed in himself so much – an incredible individual. Mika Hakkinen. I love spending time with him – he’s hilarious. I really do love him to bits, so I’d bring him along as well, I think it’d be a good combination. And then Michael [Schumacher]. It’s the same with Michael, the conversation would flow, so that’s who I’d pick.

Senna, Hakkinen and Schumacher would all be on Vowles’ F1 dinner party list

We’re going quite extreme with this one, but if you had to take one driver and team boss to a desert island with you, who would it be and why?

It would either be Alex or Carlos [Sainz], because they’re hilarious and they’ll keep me entertained. They’d be completely useless for survival, to be really clear about that – we’d have to do that for them. But you’d have entertainment most days. In terms of team bosses, I think you’d want a practical team boss. You’d want someone that wasn’t worried about getting their hands dirty, that got stuck into it, so I’d probably say someone like an Ayao [Komatsu]. I think he’s got lots of capabilities, so I think we can probably machine up something together…

Maybe a few opportunities to cry with laughter with Alex and Carlos there…

That’s sort of my point more than anything else. I was backstage in The O2 with them, and that was almost where I was going to say I belly laughed. I had to separate the two of them, otherwise we weren’t going to do anything serious that day!

Who’s your favourite team boss in F1 history?

It’d be the ones that have defined the sport, to a certain extent, to where we are now. You’re going to say I’m biased because I’m here [at Williams], but Frank was someone I looked up to. He fought against giants, reinvented who he was as a result of it and won championships. I find that admirable, just incredible how he behaved. It’s the same with Ross [Brawn]. When Ross brought the team together at Ferrari, they redefined the sport. So, anyone that for me has not just been a part of the sport, but redefined how the sport behaved, that is someone I really look up to.

Vowles has shared plenty of laughs with his 2025 driver line-up of Albon and Sainz

We know you also like to race cars from time to time… Who do you think would win a race out of all the F1 team bosses?

I encourage us to try this and see where we get to! We can’t ignore the fact that Toto [Wolff] was a professional driver. It depends on the cars as well. [But] he was good in GT cars, still is today, he and I messed around, and with Lewis as well in Austin [a few years ago]. It was fun – close, but fun, between the three of us. So, Toto will be up there. Christian [Horner], again, he got to F3000, a fast, competitive driver, so I think he’d be good. Zak [Brown], I’ve never raced against him, but he’s got some elements to him. I think that’s going to be your semi top tier, then Oliver Oakes, we can’t forget he was karting World Champion, and he’s right in there.

So, what I’d really like… I’m avoiding the question, but I’ll get to the question – there’s actually a good breadth across the grid now of individuals that are both running teams but also have huge potential. I think it would depend on what car it is and what track it is as to who would win out of all of those.

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We could try and add another round to the calendar just for team bosses…

I welcome it, I think we should give it a go!

What’s your favourite film and TV show of all time?

TV show, it’s going to show my age, the original MacGyver. I just thought that was brilliant, a man with a pen knife pretty much could take down an entire army – but he did it with science, and I really quite enjoyed that. The A-Team was in there as well, that was my youth. Film? They’re classics. The Rock with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery is brilliant, I really enjoy that film. A long time ago, I know. There’s another film no one has ever heard of called Sneakers, which I quite like, which is about individuals breaking into a bank. So, there you go – a couple of those!

Would Vowles and Wolff be the front-runners in a race between F1’s team bosses?

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

It was from a friend who’s a CEO of a company that we both were involved in. What he said was, trust your instincts, otherwise you’ll wait six months and do the same actions you were going to do anyway. Trust your instincts, they will drive you well.

Which other job do you wish you could try for a day?

I don’t think I’d be good at anything else. I’m not saying I’m good at this, either! I’d love [it] to be things that I know I can’t do. An Airforce pilot, I’d love to be in there – very brave. Again, you’ve just got speed and power behind you, a fantastic world.

It’s come up quite a lot with the drivers, being an astronaut or a pilot…

It’s because it’s a world that probably will never be a part of my world, but it looks brilliant on the outside. I’m sure it has drawbacks, but it looks brilliant on the outside.

What’s your proudest moment in F1 so far?

It was the day that I walked through the door of Williams. Not when I signed the contract, not when I had the phone call, it was the day I walked through the door. I have goosebumps talking about it now. It became a day that reality sort of hit me, that this is what I’d been working towards for many, many years, all coming together at once. And then the reality of what we had to do.

Where do you want to be in five years’ time?

Winning. I’m here and I will dedicate my life to winning in this sport, in this position.