Williams deny 'aspirational' McLaren roadmap comparisons

Williams team principal James Vowles has claimed the Grove-based outfit is on a different road to F1 recovery than the one laid out by McLaren.

The 45-year-old feels the trajectory is not comparable due to a "different set of problems" at Williams, but does believe the Woking squad provides a blueprint for his team.

Like McLaren, Williams has fallen from the grace of its heyday and both enjoyed considerable success in the 1980s and 90s and into the early part of the new millennium.

Williams' decline, however, was quicker and more pronounced. Whereas McLaren was still competitive into the early 2010s, winning its most recent championships in 2008, Williams has been without title honours since 1997 and has not fought for victories on a consistent basis since 2003.

Therefore, Vowles was careful not to be drawn into comparisons with may or may not attach expectations, and potentially unrealistic ones, to Williams' plotted resurgence.

"I think my view of the world is this: our journey is different to McLaren in many regards, but has similarities to what you're pointing out," he replied to select media including RacingNews365 when asked to what extend McLaren provides a template, given the similar histories, cultures and even power units between the two.

"McLaren was about five-to-eight years for turning it around, and I've said it here many, many times: what we have is probably a bigger problem than McLaren in many regards.

"But you already have a complete template for what a team took to get itself back into winning ways. So in that regard, yes - and we're British, with a heritage. All those regards, absolutely, yes."

'I have infrastructure that's now ageing that absolutely needs to be replaced'

Vowles, was keen to stress the differences he sees between the two operations, providing insight into his relationship with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and the value of Williams chief technical officer Pat Fry.

"It's a different set of problems [at McLaren] to what we have," the ex-Mercedes motorsport strategy direction explained.

"And I have the joy of having Pat [Fry], who has been at both, who can absolutely share what's there [at McLaren], and Zak [Brown] and myself have a really close relationship, and we talk about it pretty openly.

"In fact, before coming here, I was in Zak's office just chatting through things, because there's similarities. 

"But the reason why I don't compare to it is that they're their own entity, they have their own history, their own shaping behind it, and their own set of problems - which they still have some of today.

"I have land, they don't have land, they have a lovely looking facility, but you don't really want you autoclaves locked into the bottom of the basement.

"What I mean by that is they have different problems, and they will come across different problems to me in the future. I have plenty of space, but I have infrastructure that's now ageing that absolutely needs to be replaced."

McLaren is an 'aspiration' for Williams

McLaren remained in race-winning contention until the end of 2012, when Lewis Hamilton departed, and it had to settle for the consistent points finishes over the next couple of years.

The team fell further down the F1 pecking order, finishing ninth in the constructors' championship in both 2015 and 2017.

Since that lowest ebb, it has slowly clawed its way back to now, where the team is fighting for wins and is reeling Red Bull in as it fights for the constructors' crown.

Williams, meanwhile, spent a decade in the midfield before slumping to the bottom of F1, where it stayed for a number of years. It pulled itself away from back-marker status last season, but still has some way to go as Vowles looks to emulate the phoenix from the flames rise of McLaren.

"So how about this: it's an aspiration," he said. "I treat them as that, because you look at a team that was suffering for many years that turned it round and now are at the front.

"And I think you'd all agree, if I spoke to you in Bahrain 2023 and said to you: 'McLaren is going to be one-two next year and, by the way, the team to be' you would laugh me out the room, sensibly so. And yet, they're there. So it's an aspiration, but that's about how I treated it."