James Vowles commented on the 2021 Formula 1 Championship decision in Abu Dhabi, when Lewis Hamilton lost the title to Max Verstappen, and recalled the impact of the episode from his perspective. Today Williams team principal, Vowles worked for years at Mercedes as Toto Wolff’s right-hand man and chief strategist.
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In an interview with Frankie Langan’s YouTube channel, he mainly highlighted Hamilton’s reaction right after the race: “My biggest feeling is for Lewis, because he is an amazing guy. He fought tooth and nail for it, and that’s where my feeling is — not for me personally, but for him. As a result of that, my life moved on, I’m no longer at Mercedes, I’m at Williams.”
“That is part of my story, and if you let it take over too much, you will overshadow your future. I don’t want that to happen. It’s just a milestone of what happened five years ago. But I feel for Lewis, above all, because for him it was something that was right there, in front of him.”
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For Vowles, the most striking thing was not the result itself, but how the driver dealt with the frustration. “The biggest lesson here is not the change in the result, but how he dealt with it as a sportsman. I’m sure you’ve done things in your life — I definitely have — where you just can’t accept what happened. That was not the case for him after the race.
“In fact, he ended up becoming one of the strongest leaders within the team, who united us all at the most difficult moment for us. That is a true champion, regardless of what happens on the track, that is a true champion,” he concluded.
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