29 December 2023 , 15:58
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David Croft believes James Vowles may be snapped up by one of the top Formula 1 teams in the coming years.
Vowles made his name by climbing the ranks at the team now branded as Mercedes. He joined in 2001 when it was known as BAR, staying throughout its various guises as Honda, Brawn GP and the Mercedes team that it has been known as since 2010.
He became one of team principal Toto Wolff's top lieutenants as motorsport strategy director, while also looking after Mercedes' young development drivers. But after 21 years, he made a big change at the start of this year when he joined Williams as team principal.
In charge of the grid's sleeping giants with a wretched record in recent times, his task is a significant one. But he got off to a great start in his first year by guiding Williams to a seventh-placed finish - the team's best result since 2017.
Sky Sports commentator Croft has been especially impressed by the impact Vowles has already made. "He is my team boss of the year, without a doubt," he said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, before going on to predict a big future for the 44-year-old.
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"If you look at the lead time that he had before he took up the role, you're talking a matter of three months maximum. That is not a lot of time to put into operation any sort of plan where you hit the ground running and you get instant results."
"He works brilliantly with the sponsors. He engages with the media, explains things not just about Williams, but about know what's going on on track. He engages with fans a lot. I love him on social media because he actually engages directly with the fans. People are inspired by him. I think he will go on to be one of the top team principals at a top team in three or four years' time."
Vowles will no doubt be pleased with his team's result this season, but he is far more interested in his long-term plans. Speaking to Mirror Sport in the summer, he made it clear that he won't lose any sleep if the points dry up in the next couple of seasons, as long as progress continues to be made in the bigger picture.
He said: "The decision was made a long time ago that I'm not interested in '23 and I'm not interested in ‘24 either, for that matter. We'll make a step, but I'm interested in putting in place the mechanisms and the systems that allow us to be performant by 2026. You simply can't run on the treadmill as quickly in the current years and still do the following years.
"You've got to put more focus on the future than you do on today, which is not the same as what can be applied to pretty much most other teams on this grid. I'm comfortable with that. We could be speaking here in a year's time and you might have seen the team move backwards a little bit. That's okay - that's not what I'm interested in. What I am interested in is putting the systems and structures in that go further. You have to break a few things before that happens."