Vowles Targets Perfection in Jeddah

James Vowles is targeting ‘perfection’ for the team in Saudi Arabia this weekend – and says getting two cars into the top 10 in qualifying will be the benchmark result.

Looking ahead to the final leg of a triple-header on the latest edition of The Vowles Verdict, presented by Kraken, James said getting all the small details right will be key to success in the incredibly tight midfield battle.

He conceded the team hadn’t optimised the last race in Bahrain, but said the beauty of the packed 24-race calendar is the chance to put things right at the first opportunity.

“Our intention is to have both cars in Q3 in Jeddah, and there's little reason to see that we don't have the ability to do that,” he said.

“I think the but that comes with this is that one tenth now looks to be separating five cars. So you could be P7, P8 and going into qualifying three, or you could be back in P12, P13.

“And so it's for us to get it absolutely nailed on and perfect, which we haven't achieved. Certainly in Bahrain we had the potential to do that and we didn't achieve it.”

Bahrain brought an end to the team’s triple points-scoring run that yielded 19 points across Australia, China and Japan, as Alex Albon finished 12th and Carlos Sainz was forced to retire with damage sustained in a collision with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda.

James again hailed Atlassian Williams Racing’s formidable driver line-up heading to Jeddah.

“What you can see now is Carlos very much has made a step and Alex all year long has shown that he's absolutely performing at the highest of levels. So we are blessed to have two drivers.

“The car is still in a positive form in terms of performance. It's still quick and there's a lot we've understood from Bahrain that should help us going to Saudi.”

To hear more from James as he breaks down the team’s latest performance, watch the full episode of The Vowles Verdict now.