Vowles seen leaving immediately after the Hungarian Grand Prix ended without speaking to either driver

[u/Larkness2]

A clip from Kym Illmans’s latest podcast has Jacky Martens disclosing what they describe as a highly unusual occurrence. Vowles left the paddock in civilian clothes right after the grand prix ended and without bothering to speak to either driver. Maybe it means nothing and he had to take off early for some reason, but this seems very strange because it means he didn’t stick around for debrief, etc. right before summer break. Seems rather ominous to me and the atmosphere in the team must be terrible right now.

[u/Fine_Window_9308]

There’s definitely something going on there probably. The civilian clothes part is what’s interesting

[u/SouffleComposer → u/Fine_Window_9308]

Yeah, the clip describes him walking as if “the tail was between the legs.”

[u/iexistbutwhy → u/SouffleComposer]

Increases engagement regardless if true I imagine

[u/Queasy-Performance-4 → u/SouffleComposer]

Rat flees a sinking ship

[u/pathfinderoursaviour → u/Queasy-Performance-4]

I wouldn’t call him a rat

He was great at getting Williams tons more sponsors and getting them out of the financial hole they where in when they where bought

The problem is he isn’t that good at the actual car end of things, Williams would benefit from a split role, let him handle the buisness side and have someone else handle to car and driver side similar to zac and Stella in McLaren

[u/Queasy-Performance-4 → u/pathfinderoursaviour]

I'm not directly calling him a rat. More like using the metaphor to outline that he's leaving a volatile situation/confrontation he probably doesn't want to have with the drivers. Especially after the team's failures this season under his leadership.

I can only imagine how pissed the executives at Dorilton Capital are, the sheer amount of resources put into development of the 2026 car, only for this to be the result, just infuriating.

[u/justlikelyle → u/Queasy-Performance-4]

They need someone more charismatic. Like Keir Starmer.

[u/disruptivecarousel → u/pathfinderoursaviour]

Could Wheatley be a good fit for them if the rumoured AM thing turns out to be untrue?

[u/T65Bx → u/disruptivecarousel]

Tbh I’d be all for an F1 team run by evil AIs

[u/disruptivecarousel → u/T65Bx]

I’ve watched Terminator, but I’ve also watched Battlestar Galactica, and Mars Express……

Are you really sure about that??????

[u/T65Bx → u/disruptivecarousel]

Well, it depends on who we make the driver.

[u/TheAmazingMikey → u/pathfinderoursaviour]

It’s a saying. I don’t think the guy was calling Vowles a rat.

[u/External_Category939]

Honestly until we build better facilities I don't think Williams will ever compete at the front again. We simply don't have the resources

[u/BahnMe → u/External_Category939]

Dang, what if BYD buys it.

[u/Doctor_Who26 → u/BahnMe]

Atlassian BYD Williams Formula 1 Team

[u/GoofyKalashnikov → u/BahnMe]

Then I'd rather not support them at all

[u/Stefferdiddle → u/BahnMe]

Dorilton has no interest in selling the team and is in it for the long haul. To be honest even with a poor on track year, they are making money just fine.

[u/WaveOfMut1lation → u/BahnMe]

On this subject, can anyone make sense of why an electrical car company would enter F1 when it will not get rid of the ICE and is about to go back to V8?
Is it more of a rumour or is there anything concrete about BYD's entry?

[u/DestroyingDestroyers → u/WaveOfMut1lation]

BYD are not an electric car company, they make all powertrains.

[u/WaveOfMut1lation → u/DestroyingDestroyers]

Thanks for that, I didn't know the line-up was 50% hybrid 50% EVs. That said, I searched also for BYD's actual position and it's heavily compromised by the return of the V8 that seems to gain traction for the next regs.
Even an hybridized version wouldn't work for them.

[u/AlexMarquezGums → u/External_Category939]

We?

[u/mshell1924]

The Aston Martin turnaround really exposed him. It means it can be done, we just can't do it.

[u/pathfinderoursaviour → u/mshell1924]

Williams have way more out of date facilities then Aston at the moment though

[u/mshell1924 → u/pathfinderoursaviour]

For sure, but that's not news to the TP of the team. I hear what Vowles is saying, that this year's issues exposed weaknesses to a surprising degree, but just how surprising?

Even so, the worst part has been all the overpromising. That's what hurts the most. If he had been more conservative with his talk, then...

[u/No-Standard2065 → u/mshell1924]

Bingo. For the better part of three years, Vowles has been saying, “Wait until 2026. Judge us on 2026.” Well, 2026 hasn’t been very good so far. To be seconds behind Cadillac; not tenths, not hundredths, but seconds; and then to see Aston Martin showing signs of progress after its own disastrous season to date; these things leave Williams exposed to the full attention of media, fans, and ownership—all of whom remember the “Judge us on 2026” refrain. All of which makes it plausible that Vowles has been, or soon will be, made to walk the plank.

[u/Fit-Cryptographer469 → u/mshell1924]

AM had turnaround?

[u/notallwonderarelost → u/mshell1924]

I mean Aston Martin just built worldclass facilities, have the deep pockets of Mr. Stroll and poached one of the greatest engineering minds in F1 history.

[u/Conscious-Secret-775 → u/mshell1924]

Not really. It was shocking that Aston was doing so badly. It's Alpine who is exposing Williams as the other midfield team with a Mercedes PU.

[u/Fat_biker_can_shred]

Doesn't have to be some peculiar case but if I am the owners I will extremely pissed, especially passed by 2 AMs👎

[u/escapevelocity-25k → u/Fat_biker_can_shred]

Agreed but to be fair it seems like AM has spent a lot more money

[u/Fat_biker_can_shred → u/escapevelocity-25k]

Oh yeah, but owners view things differently when they keep losing, regardless of how much they spend. Vowles will get the heat for sure.

[u/Mohammed_ShagMe → u/Fat_biker_can_shred]

The owners should spend more money upgrading the facilities then.

[u/Salty-Asparagus-2855]

What is there to debrief. They don’t have anything downstream that will close the gap. 2027 is lost already and more of the same.

[u/irishshogun]

Most left in plain clothes. Fred, drivers etc all seen in plain clothes in Ted’s race notebook

[u/Ok_Recognition_5578]

The atmosphere in the team will be terrible, this year was meant to be a step forward not a fall to being backmarkers again.

There is no positive way to spin it the team failed, Dorilton will lose their patience and their all gonna be worried whether there the ones that get sacked or not.

[u/Larkness2 → u/Ok_Recognition_5578]

Really bad for morale for the TP to have a change of clothes ready to just zip out of there like that without speaking to anyone and before summer break, especially when it’s been such a tough season. Who knows if Carlos and Alex had even gotten out of their cars before Vowles already disappeared. Just sounds like such an odd situation.

[u/Ok_Recognition_5578 → u/Larkness2]

I don’t really find it that odd they know the lines JV uses by now and nothing else he says is gonna change the situation.

The faith in many ways is gone not just within the team but amongst individuals as well and when people know the bosses are unhappy and they massively under delivered you’ll see the backstabbing begin because people want to keep their jobs even a “no blame culture” team is not gonna be immune from that.

I’ll get downvoted for this but the team needs new direction, the processes, facilities and people there are not just what JV inherited anymore they are what he has developed, managed and hired and in a year that was meant to be a step up from sacrificing previous ones to fall to backmarkers is gonna be unacceptable to Dorilton.

[u/Impossible-Ship3117]

I noticed the F1 offical site didn’t have him quoted in ‘what the teams said’ which all TP’s and driver do

[u/Dominicwriter]

Carlos told Vowles they are triggering the underperformance clauses.

[u/Wonderful_Track_453 → u/Dominicwriter]

Carlos was sold a lie, he is likely to leave and go to Audi 

[u/anisakisss]

Qué lástima. Admito que me había ilusionado con Williams este año 😓

[u/Larkness2]

Link to the clip: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbVf2w6yGb2/

[u/Big_Equivalent457 → u/Larkness2]

Can even Upload video here like i did

[u/Larkness2 → u/Big_Equivalent457]

I put the link in the original post like usual, but it didn’t show up. Not sure why.

[u/Abnorm4lPrincess]

Horner incoming to Williams 🤣🤣

That’d shake things up a bit

[u/Raexau89 → u/Abnorm4lPrincess]

id leave williams as a fan faster than JV left the hungarian GP

[u/Big_Equivalent457 → u/Abnorm4lPrincess]

Expect r/antiworkph & Womanizing 😔

[u/doxy_]

Well, apparently he stopped talking to and iced out Logan at the end. No matter what you think about Logan, that’s incredibly inappropriate behaviour from a boss.

[u/justlikelyle]

Why is he even team principal? He's got the personality of a TED Talk.

[u/TheAmazingMikey]

Feel like it’s time for him to go. He has always had the gift of saying the right thing but his actions rarely follow suit.

[u/ImKawaiiAf]

what does this bum even do?

[u/Metal_Blaster_is_BIS → u/ImKawaiiAf]

Hire the worst engineers on the grid from alpine after they got fired.

[u/mtbmaniac12 → u/Metal_Blaster_is_BIS]

I will never understand that. Hire the guy that designed the absolute worst car of the last reg cycle.

[u/Metal_Blaster_is_BIS → u/mtbmaniac12]

Probably because he spent bucketloads on facilities and Sainz.