Williams highlight significant boost beyond P7 result

Williams Team Principal James Vowles has highlighted that seventh place in the Constructors' Championship means more to the squad beyond the monetary prize.

In the latter stage of the season, Williams faced pressure from a resurging AlphaTauri who continued to develop its car.

Despite Yuki Tsunoda's run to eighth place in Abu Dhabi, Williams fended off AlphaTauri's threat to finish P7.

It marked the Grove-based squad's highest result in the Constructors' standings since 2017.

Vowles, who took over at the helm of Williams at the start of the campaign, believes that the result lays the footing for the squad's future.

“Probably the most important thing is that it sets the foundations for the team - that they have something to build on now,” he said, as quoted by Autosport.

“You lose out on wind tunnel time and it's not the financial element that we are particularly worried about.

“But what I wanted them to do was to stand up and go: this is the start of our journey. By the way, we're not going backwards from here. This is a new de facto standard and a spring for us.”

Vowles confident of further investment

While Williams will receive a higher payout as part of the prize money, Vowles is confident that owners Dorilton Capital will be more inclined to invest more funds into the project.

“It always helps having money in the bank account,” he said.

“But I've been very open and public about the fact that we're throwing away, in terms of losses, tens of millions.

“But we're here to invest, to go back to the front, whatever that costs us in the short term.

"What it does is it pretty much helps the discussion when I'm going behind the scenes and asking for $100m more, which is the numbers we're sort of talking about. It makes a massive difference for that.”