James Vowles: We'll be Strong at the Next Three

As Formula 1 heads into its annual summer break, Team Principal James Vowles was feeling optimistic about the return to action at the end of the month, in the latest episode of The Vowles Verdict, presented by Kraken.

“We have three circuits coming up; one is Zandvoort, a track where we qualified incredibly well a few years ago,” he began.

“We've raced there well for the last few years and I'm confident this car will do the same again this year.

“Monza is a track where again, we tend to have a high points score– but the characteristics of the car again should be strong there, and then finally going to Baku, where last year we got a double points finish.

“So those are just the next three. And what we have to make sure we do is get our reliability, our build, our operations, our strategy, our drivers together, everything coming together to make sure we maximize our point score.”

Asked about his reflections on the season so far, James was torn – though there was no ignoring the superb points haul the team has achieved to date;

“I feel mixed emotions,” he said.

“I'm very proud of where we have come from. We have to remember this is our best start of the season for over a decade and we've done well to score a good number of points in our journey here. So that's the positive aspect of things.

“The negative is always when I reflect back on certain races. We had more points that we could have scored across certain events where the car was performing very, very well.

“So I know there's real tangible points we've left on the table and in a close battle for the championship, as it is, that's painful.

“However, nothing beats a fast car and I'm confident the car we have, across most of the circuits remaining for the rest of the year, will be competitive, and we have a duty and responsibility to score as many points as we can in that journey.

You can hear more of James’ reflections from the Hungarian Grand Prix in the latest episode of The Vowles Verdict, presented by Kraken.