Vowles has been at the helm since February and after a three-month back and forth, managed to tempt Alpine chief technical officer Pat Fry to join the Grove squad from 1 November.
While the team hopes this coup will enable it to tempt other senior figures, the technical director who will report to Fry is more likely to be a rival squad’s design number two seeking a lead role.
Until Williams fully bolsters its technical department, Vowles says his leadership team is having to divert attention away from the recovery plan. This is leaving the outfit “on crutches”.
Vowles explained: “We're fortunate with the team I have behind me at the moment because they are filling voids that exist. But clearly, we're on crutches.
“We're trying to do 10 things and it's always better if you focus on one.
“I'm not a strong engineer within the paddock. There are much stronger engineers than I am.
“What I am, though, is someone with a vision of where we want to get to and lead people there on that direction. People, at the moment, are very much aligned with that view.”
Source: Autosport