In the round-up: James Vowles says he did not sleep for “days at a time”
In brief
Vowles up for “days at a time”
James Vowles admits that he did not sleep for “days at a time” last season due to the pressures of being Williams team principal.
Vowles joined the team from Mercedes as its team principal at the beginning of last season. The team jumped from tenth in the championship in 2022 to seventh last year.
“In terms of me personally, perhaps I didn’t recognise to an extent the weight that applies to your shoulders,” Vowles said. “We push things right to the limit and very late, there’s no doubt about it.
“There were times where I don’t mind admitting I wasn’t sleeping for probably days at a time, because the weight of a thousand people falls on your shoulders. But I’m confident that what we are doing is right for the future and that confidence is what allows me to get all of the team together and talk it through, which is what we’ve done over the last few weeks, and then come together as a group and end up with the car that has fired up, which is a momentous occasion.”
Ferrari junior Taponen has one hand on FRMEC title
Ferrari academy driver Tuukka Taponen extended his healthy championship advantage in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship to 50 points after a dominant display in the third and final race of the weekend at Yas Marina yesterday.After Rafael Camara took victory in the first of Saturday’s two races ahead of McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu and Zachary David, Taponen led every lap of race three from pole position, leading home former Ferrari junior James Wharton in second with David finishing third again.
Taponen looks set to win the championship next weekend over the final three races in Dubai with a 50 point lead over Taylor Barnard.
Bilinski takes yet another FROC win
Formula Regional Oceania Championship standings leader Roman Bilinski added yet another win to his tally as he move even further ahead in the championship standings at Ruapuna.
With his sixth win from the first ten races in the championship, Bilinski now holds a 54-point lead in the drivers’ standings. There are two further races on Sunday.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Red Bull F1 team is Horner's vision. What if its driving force leaves? (Motor Sport)
'The technical core of the team is there, the sharp strategy team, the deep understanding which underscores performance in this formula: they will be enough to allow Max Verstappen to continue much as he would with Horner still there. For a time, at least.'
Red Bull return makes perfect sense for Alex Albon's redemption story (Mirror)
'Albon will no doubt be a strong candidate for the Mercedes seat that will soon be vacated by Lewis Hamilton. The Silver Arrows have a strong relationship with Williams which has only been bolstered by Vowles' move from being one of Toto Wolff's top lieutenants to taking charge of their customer team.'
Haas sponsor MoneyGram takes Steiner exit in its stride (Malay Mail)
MoneyGram chief marketing officer Greg Hall: ''Guenther’s left and he was well loved in Drive to Survive. People who liked Guenther are always going to like Guenther. He’s a great guy. From a racing perspective, coaches get changed all the time. You can be a great coach but if you’re not producing results owners tend to make changes. I think most people kind of understand that.''
Max wins final race of Real Racers Never Quit (Verstappen)
'Max won the last race of Real Racers Never Quit. At Fuji Speedway, Verstappen managed to keep Gianni Vecchio and William Chadwick behind. It was Max’s third victory in the championship.'
Doohan sets sights on international triathlon (Speedcafe)
'Everyone is saying at this time of year training is good, that I'm the fittest I've ever been and whatnot. But to be honest, I do feel that way. I was able to go further and start training for more triathlon and long, endurance training. I completed in my first half-marathon race, did a triathlon out there on January 14 as well. Now I'm training for an Olympic, international championship triathlon in Cannes coming up as well, and then a half ironman in Nice in June.''
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— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) February 10, 2024
First laps of 2024. ✅
Today was Lando’s turn in the 2022 MCL36 🏎️ pic.twitter.com/mUH1oZd4nq
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 10, 2024
Wishing everyone a prosperous and fulfilling Year of the Dragon! 🐉 🖤💚 pic.twitter.com/T8zmid3chC
— Stake F1 Team (@stakef1team) February 10, 2024
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Comment of the day
With Pierre Gasly saying he feels in a “much better place” at Alpine this season, Sonny Crockett can’t resist a cheeky dig…
Fernando Alonso feels in a much better place too. Aston Martin.
Sonny Crockett
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Willis, Tom.Y, David Benford, Markie and Pete!
Mog
11th February 2024, 2:14
James, for your own sake, make sure you sleep.
MichaelN
11th February 2024, 11:49
Yeah, this really isn’t a good idea. People need to sleep. I’m sure he’s exaggerating to emphasise his point, but it’s not something to celebrate regardless.
Still, unfortunate comments aside, he seems to be making a genuine attempt to turn the Williams ship around, which can only be a good thing for F1.
Tristan
11th February 2024, 4:03
Fortunately not Paddy levels of late. There’s a fine line between just in time and forced to resign.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
11th February 2024, 5:29
I’ve got a lot of time for James Vowles. He seems like one of the good guys and a positive influence on Williams. I’m sure some people will say that him not sleeping is a sign of weakness, but I think it’s really important to see that sometimes people at the top genuinely care and can be just as susceptible to things like stress and anxiety as the rest of us.
Jere (@jerejj)
11th February 2024, 5:56
If he indeed literally didn’t sleep at all without getting too tired to do anything, he must be very strong mentally.
Mirror: As Red Bull isn’t an organization known to give second chances in their main team to demoted drivers, I highly doubt they’d suddenly make an exception, especially considering his subpar performance in 2020 was comparatively worse than Gasly’s in 2019 (not to mention Kvyat didn’t even underperform per se, for that matter), given how much more time & support, including getting a more experienced race engineer during the season, he received yet continued to underperform, so doubtful.
All in all, he had his chance & he eventually blew it, which is something even Marko stated at one point.
gDog (@gdog)
11th February 2024, 7:58
I think the bigger problem for Red Bull will be that if Horner goes, how long will Newey stick around? He’s nearly retired from F1 a few times already
notagrumpyfan
11th February 2024, 8:36
The biggest problem is: what will this racing website post as soon as this is resolved one way or the other.
But it seems they are already perusing the Mirror for other stories.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
11th February 2024, 23:06
Big old man shouts at clouds energy
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
11th February 2024, 11:23
Valtteri is looking more and more like a cheap Porn star with every passing year!
I love the guy …. but not in that way :O ;)
Tristan (@skipgamer)
11th February 2024, 23:07
His 20-year-old Aussie bogan look is fascinating. Talk about a mid life crisis…