James Vowles said he feels he will end his career at Williams despite rumours suggesting he could one day succeed Toto Wolff at Mercedes.
After 12 years at Brackley, Vowles departed the Silver Arrows to take up the team principal role at Williams, but there was always a suggestion that he could one day go back.
James Vowles rules out Mercedes swap with Williams declaration
While the man himself insisted it was not, many thought his move to Williams was a chance to cut his teeth as a team boss before succeeding Wolff but Vowles has now said he wants to see out his career at Grove.
“I really feel this is where I’ll end my career,” he told MSN. “It was the proudest moment of my life walking through the door at Williams.
“I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in a team with a legacy beyond pretty much every team, to bring it back to the front. I’m happy looking everyone in the eyes and saying: ‘This is where I want to be. This team can be world champions.’ And I’ll be here when we do that.
“Fighting for points near enough every race is great,” Vowles says. “But I call that low-hanging fruit. The really lovely stuff is the stuff coming online in 2026, 2027, 2028… infrastructure and facilities.”
“The DNA is absolutely still Williams. And while I’m here, we will not lose the family feel. That is really important to me. I don’t want bureaucracy, I don’t want corporations to go and kill what we have for money.”
Last month, Vowles signed a new deal to extend his deal at Williams while Wolff’s latest contract renewal came in January.
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Speaking during the Austrian Grand Prix, Vowles said he did not consider a future Mercedes move when he put pen to paper with Williams.
“There was no other person I called on the grid, really, when I was in discussion over this,” he said.
“Toto is an incredible individual, but he’s also very comfortable where he is at the moment and wants to be there, I believe, for many, many more years. So that direction parted three years ago, and that’s it.”
Under Vowles’ leadership, Williams are experiencing their best season since 2017’s P5 with the team equalling that position in the standings having scored 55 points.
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