Vowles details development push during April break
James Vowles shares on The Vowles Verdict how Atlassian Williams F1 Team will use the gap in the calendar to analyse data and accelerate upgrades
Published
20 MAR 2026
Est. reading time
2 min
With an enforced break in the racing calendar on the horizon, Atlassian Williams F1 Team has been presented an opportunity to regroup – and Team Principal James Vowles is clear on how important that time could prove.
After a challenging start to the season, despite getting points on the board in China, the focus now turns to maximising every moment before racing resumes in Miami.
“Every single hour of that break we need in order to get ourselves back on the front foot by the time we come back to Miami,” Vowles said on the latest episode of The Vowles Verdict, presented by Kraken. “Clearly we haven’t started the season where we wanted to, so that period for us is about taking stock of what we actually really can change.”
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With no races interrupting development, the team can shift its full attention to performance – both immediate and longer-term.
“Without attrition, we can count on the fact that production can be moved towards future performance,” he explained. “Some of that may come in Miami, some of that after that. It’s no secret that we’re overweight – again, the developments will be in that period of time making sure that we’re able to reduce the mass in the car in a sensible fashion.”
Just as important as new parts is the time to properly understand what’s already happened across the opening rounds.
“We’ve gone through, by that point, three Grands Prix, but there’s never enough time after the event to go through every single tiny bit of data,” Vowles said. “And understand really what we should have done in hindsight and what programmes we want to kick off in the future – and this provides us a good time to do that.”
JV walks to the pit wall in Shanghai
Back at Grove, the work won’t slow down – if anything, it will be taking a step up.
“The drivers will come back here to the UK and we’ll run our simulator basically every single day of that [break], as much as possible,” he added. “We’ll complete pit stop practice with the crew back here most of the days that we can as well. So it’ll be more about what we can fit in and what will provide the most bang for buck.”
To hear more from James following the Chinese Grand Prix, catch the latest episode of The Vowles Verdict, presented by Kraken.
Watch The Vowles Verdict, presented by Kraken
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