Vowles embarks on 'personal' quest to honour Williams

James Vowles has explained how he is on a "personal" mission to help honour late Williams founder, Sir Frank Williams.

Williams sold the team to Dorilton Capital in September 2020, before he passed away aged 79 in November 2021, with the team suffering from poor on-track performance.

Old team principal Jost Capito stepped down after the 2022 season, to be replaced by former Mercedes strategy chief Vowles in time for '23, who has since embarked on trying to transform Williams' working practices and culture.

The new FW47 machine was recently launched at Silverstone, featuring the team's title sponsorship in Atlassian since Williams' tenure with Carlos Sainz also hired as a big-name driver after leaving Ferrari.

Honouring the legacy of Williams is something Vowles is taking personally.

"It is a great question, and the short answer is yes, but it is in a slightly different way," Vowles told media including RacingNews365 when asked if Williams would be proud of the direction his team would be going in. 

"This wasn't the first day that I put on the shirts with Atlassian and Williams on my chest, it was a few weeks ago for filming, and I just took five minutes to be incredibly proud that I had the opportunity to bear his name and Atlassian.

"We absolutely have a responsibility and I joined this team because it was the benchmark in the sport that redefined certain elements for me and brought me to the sport, and that is why I am heading up Williams today.

"It means something very deep and personal to me and my goal is simply to bring this team back to a championship-level and I want to make sure we do him good, his name and legacy."