Until his 2023 appointment at the helm of Williams, Vowles served two decades at Brackley, rising to the ranks of Mercedes chief strategist and latterly its motorsport strategy director.
Beyond influencing in-race strategy, Vowles co-managed the Three-Pointed Star’s junior driver roster in his former position and steered the manufacturer’s presence in other categories.
He was considered a contender to one day replace Toto Wolff at the top of the Mercedes F1 squad.
But Vowles says he must learn on the job at Williams, with his initial months in charge allowing him to realise he is not the finished article. But he reckons he can match other team bosses.
He told Sky: “You migrate from knowing one thing for many, many years - remembering that it was 20-odd years that I was at the previous place.
“I had the fortune of doing strategy but then moving on to many of the other tasks that Toto and myself worked on, including strategy not just for the team but other organisations within Mercedes.
“It gave me a formation to this but clearly not the full picture of everything I’m going to expect here.
“However, everything is exciting simply because you’re using skills that you’ve built previously and having to really explore the limits of what you’re aware of.
“I have a lot of learning to do. I’m against my nine other peers who have been doing this for many, many years and are very experienced at what they’re doing. But I think I’ll hold my own.”
Source: Autosport