James Vowles (GBR) Williams Racing Team Principal on the grid. 08.10.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 18, Qatar Grand Prix, Doha, Qatar, Race Day
Williams Team Principal James Vowles has outlined why it is “strongly against” the addition of an 11th side on the Formula 1 grid.
Ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, the FIA confirmed that it had formally given the green light to Andretti Formula Racing’s bid to join F1 as early as the 2025 season.
However, the American entity must now negotiate commercial terms with Formula One Management, meaning its future place is by no means secure at this stage.
Andretti, along with every other proposal, has been met with stern resistance by the sport and its 10 teams, who are concerned by the end-of-year prize pool becoming smaller.
Despite F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali claiming every team is worth “almost billions”, Vowles predicts that at least half of the current 10 teams still aren’t financially stable.
Among that group is Williams, which is why Vowles suggests an extra team should only be accommodated once every outfit can boast that it has reached that point.
“My thoughts are very clear. Williams is against the addition of an 11th team. And very strongly against,” he declared in Qatar.
“But I’ll explain the reasons behind that and why. My responsibility is to 900 employees within my company. If you go look at Companies House, you can go look it up for Williams, we’ve submitted it now, you can see that we’re lossy. We’re very lossy.
“In fact, compare it from ’21 to ’22, you’ll see that losses are in the tens of millions more. Compare it to ’23, which you won’t see but I’ll guarantee you, it’s multiples above that.
“The reason why is we’re investing in this sport, to become better. We believe in where the sport is going, we believe in the direction of travel of the sport. In order to do that… the reason why is we actually have, I think, a sustainable entity for once.
“Teams are working more and more together, we have close racing as a result of things – but it should be known that this isn’t just us that are not financially stable. I’d say probably half the grid aren’t. I think the addition of an 11th team is a sensible thing – but only at a point where the 10th team on the grid is financially stable.
“I’m fortunate to have owners that really believe in what we’re doing and to invest in what we’re doing – but we need to take care as a sport to make sure we look after that.
“Everyone says we’re in a good place – we are in some regards, but now those facts down the line, that this is tens of millions, or, in fact, hundreds of millions you’ll see shortly, being invested to make the sport better, it becomes very clear why we’re very careful about diluting what we’ve already got – because it’s just more losses on the table.”
Michael Andretti (USA). 07.05.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 5, Miami Grand Prix, Miami, Florida, USA, Race Day.
Earlier this year, Andretti announced that it had teamed up with General Motors for its F1 endeavours in a move which would see the Cadillac name prop up in the sport.
Vowles admits that he would welcome GM “open-armed” and would be open to the possibility of Williams securing an alliance with the American automotive company if Andretti’s bid doesn’t materialise.
“Now, we’ve been clear from the beginning, more than happy to bring in new entities, but the pie has to grow as a result of it, not shrink, and so far it’s just shrinking,” he reiterated.
“For clarity on that, that’s not against either Andretti or GM, quite the opposite. I welcome GM open-armed, and Williams welcomes GM open-arms and I hope to forge a relationship with them, should things not work out. They are an incredible entity that I think will make the sport better.
“So, it’s not that we’re close-minded to more people coming into the sport, but what we’re very careful on is protecting the sport we have right now.”
Pressed on whether that hinted that Williams had held any negotiations with GM, Vowles retorted: “No, no, we don’t. We obviously have a Mercedes power unit in the back. We have nothing agreed yet for ’26.
“My point was more that an organisation, an OEM like GM absolutely would be welcome in our sport, and we would give welcome arms also to them at that stage but they’re clearly linked to Andretti. It’s not a question of that and we’re not in talks with them at the moment.”
Keyword: Vowles outlines why Williams is ‘strongly against’ 11th F1 team