4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
We meet the Team Principal at Williams Racing - who says he's determined to restore one of Formula 1’s most historic teams to its former glory.
From facing rejection early in his career to working with Honda, Brawn GP and Mercedes, James Vowles recounts his journey in the sport.
He is now focussed on transforming Williams, who have not claimed a championship since the late 1990’s.
Presenter: Theo Leggett Producer: Amber Mehmood
(Image: James Vowles at Williams Racing HQ in Oxfordshire. Credit: Amber Mehmood)
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0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily. I'm Theo Leggett. In today's program, we'll be delving into the high-octane world of Formula One and meeting a man who's promising to take a fallen giant back to the winner's circle. |
0:13.9 | And for everyone that's here, they're interested in line themselves to an organisation that's prepared to take huge risks, and I'm prepared to take huge risks. |
0:21.2 | This fails. |
0:22.5 | I mean, no doubt I won't be here anymore. |
0:24.2 | That's James Vowles, the risk-taking team principle of Williams Racing. |
0:35.2 | Back in the 1980s and 90s, Formula One motor racing was a glamorous but brutal sport. |
0:41.6 | The cars were fast and powerful, yet difficult to drive and dangerous. |
0:46.5 | Competition was intense, as teams and drivers fought tooth and nail for Grand Prix victories |
0:51.6 | and championships. |
0:53.3 | One of the most successful was Williams. |
0:56.0 | It notched up title after title with the likes of Alan Jones, K.K. Rosberg, Nelson Piquet and |
1:01.8 | Alan Prost at the wheel. And then, in the new millennium, the winds dried up. The team fell to the |
1:08.0 | back of the grid and came close to oblivion. |
1:15.5 | Yet it survived, and today at its headquarters in South West England, |
1:20.0 | the competitive spirit burns as strong as ever, as I've been finding out. |
1:29.0 | You can really appreciate some of that history if you come to where I'm sitting right now, |
1:33.0 | which is inside Williams's in-house museum. |
1:37.8 | And I'm surrounded by cars from decades' worth of Formula One. |
1:44.0 | Just behind me, for example, is the car that Nigel Mansell took to the 1992 Formula One World Championship. |
1:48.9 | In front of me, the car that Alan Prost took to the championship the following year, |
1:51.8 | redolent in its navy blue and yellow livery. |
1:57.5 | And the man who's charged with bringing back the glory days for Williams is sitting in front of me. |
... |
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