The life of a Formula 1 team principal isn’t easy and every boss this season has faced very different challenges in 2024.
Even Christian Horner, whose Red Bull team are dominating the sport, is facing the prospect of Mercedes trying to poach star driver Max Verstappen.
Speaking on commentary for Sky Sports F1, Nico Rosberg wanted to praise another boss sitting on the pit wall.
Each team on the grid has different targets and while others – such as Ayao Komatsu’s Haas outfit – are overperforming, others are struggling.
Alpine have fallen off a cliff in 2024 and Bruno Famin is likely to come under immense pressure very shortly if things don’t improve soon.
Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi is only keeping the seat warm for Andreas Seidl once Audi take over in 2026.
However, Nico Rosberg wanted to highlight how well James Vowles is doing at Williams and believes the 44-year-old has a huge future ahead of him with the team.
Williams took big steps forward last year, but things haven’t gone to plan in 2024.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes relationship
Nico Rosberg praises Williams team principal James Vowles
At the start of 2023, James Vowles swapped perennial champions Mercedes for rock-bottom Williams to take over as team principal from Jost Capito.
What he discovered was a team using facilities that were 20 years out of date.
Williams were using a large Excel document to keep track of the parts that needed to be built for their new car and Vowles went about completely updating the team’s processes to give them a better platform to build on.
He was helped by a strong 2023 campaign that saw Williams finish ahead of AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo and Haas.
That was thanks to Alex Albon who scored all but one of the team’s points with rookie Logan Sargeant only securing one top-ten finish in Austin.
Nico Rosberg has hailed the job Vowles is doing at Williams and thinks he’s got the potential to help them return to the upper echelons of the grid.
However, given their start to the 2024 campaign, it looks unlikely that they’ll achieve that any time soon.
James Vowles has a huge task ahead of him in 2024 and beyond
Asked what it must be like in the Williams factory this season given the damaged chassis situation, Rosberg said: “Yeah, that’s horrible because it also costs you in terms of development.
“You only have a certain amount of resources and if you have to keep producing new wings and new bodywork for the car, it slows down your progress in terms of development.
“It’s all a tough situation but James Vowles who used to be our strategy engineer at Mercedes, he’s so smart, he’s a great guy.
“I’m confident that he’s going to do a brilliant job over at Williams.”
Before the season even began, Vowles admitted that he was willing to sacrifice this campaign to secure the long-term success of the team.
Unfortunately, they were pushed to their limit in the winter to get the 2024 car ready and as a result, couldn’t prepare a spare chassis.
That meant Logan Sargeant missed out in Australia when he handed his chassis to Albon following a huge crash he had in practice.
Both drivers then crashed at the following race in Japan, while Sargeant spun during qualifying in China.
While Rosberg believes Vowles will do a brilliant job at Williams, he’s facing a lot of short-term issues that are hampering their long-term success.
He will be desperate for either driver to score their first point of the season in Miami, but staying out of the barriers at the street circuit may be even more beneficial.
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