"Toto was the catalyst" - James Vowles on how the Mercedes turnaround happened in 2013 before the team became dominant

Williams team principal James Vowles recently spoke about the troubling situation Mercedes was in back in 2013. He also highlighted how Toto Wolff was the catalyst for the overall direction the team was taking. The Silver Arrows joined F1 back in 2010, but were a mediocre team, finishing fourth and fifth in the championship. Their fortunes drastically changed after 2013.

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Vowles recalled when Mercedes was undergoing a massive cultural change in 2012 and 2013, something that started before Toto Wolff joined. The mentality was that they were no longer afraid of failure.

"Within the era of 2012, 2013 of Mercedes, we were becoming stronger and stronger as a unit, and the cultural change happened before Toto came there. The cultural change was this: have no fear of failure; we've done enough failure; I'm comfortable with it now; no fear of failure."

James Vowles added that Toto Wolff acted as a catalyst for the whole cultural shift inside Mercedes. Hence, the synergy between Wolff and the team was instant and the team started to perform a lot better.

"We need to change what we're doing. What we're doing is not good enough; it's not the standard in Formula One. The catalyst was Toto, it's really important to say, it's not that he had no part in it at all, far from it. It's that the direction of travel already started prior to him joining in 2013. But he mirrors the views that we did and that's why it gelled incredibly quickly overnight."

The German giants had high hopes right after entering the sport as a works team. One of the reasons was that legendary F1 driver Michael Schumacher was making a return to the sport with them, along with Ross Brawn as team principal. Unfortunately, the team did not start winning championships until 2014.

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James Vowles on how he is different from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff

After 2022, James Vowles jumped from Mercedes to Williams and took on a challenge to push the team forward. Despite being a team principal now, Vowles claims that his views and way of working are quite different from those of his previous boss, Toto Wolff.

According to formel1.de, Vowles said:

"I had a discussion with him once, and he asked me my view of things. And I explained to him very clearly that I'm different from him. And that's fine, too. I don't want to be like him. I want to have my own independent thoughts. That's what the strengths of both of us are."

James Vowles has worked as a strategist for more than a decade. He helped the Brawn GP team win their only world championship in 2009, after which they were acquired by Mercedes in 2010. He was later promoted to Chief Strategist in 2019.