09/06/2025 14:25
Toto Wolff has shared his thoughts on the ascension of two rival F1
bosses, Andy Cowell and James Vowles, both of whom worked under him
at Mercedes before becoming team principals. Cowell heads up Aston
Martin, also as CEO, after taking over duties from Mike Krack
during the F1 off-season, whilst Vowles has been at the helm at
Williams since the start of 2023, upon leaving Mercedes as
motorsport strategy director. The former started in motorsport in
the late 1990s, joining the Cosworth graduate scheme out of
university, where he helped design the engine that powered
Stewart's Johnny Herbert to victory at the 1999 European Grand
Prix. After a year at BMW in 2000, in the German marque's first
year with Williams, he returned to Cosworth in 2001 as the
principal engineer for F1 design and development. After moving over
to Mercedes in 2004, Cowell went on to become managing director of
its high performance powertrains (HPP) in 2013, overseeing the
project that developed the dominant power unit for the advent of
the F1 turbo-hybrid era, before leaving in 2020 - the year Lewis
Hamilton won his seventh drivers' championship and the team won its
seventh of eight constructors' crowns. "With Andy, he was one of
the strongest managers that I've ever seen in my life with all the
other businesses," Wolff told the media, including RacingNews365 ,
whilst sitting alongside Cowell and Vowles, and after being asked
if he had seen them as future team principals. "He also had the
human side and the people management, [and] on the other side, the
technical skill. "We used to laugh when we had an engine issue,
that Andy was having his fingers on the pistons, and in the
cylinder head on Saturday, after qualifying. And I always said,
'Are your nails dirty?' Because that meant he was in control of
what was happening on the engine side. So, yeah, definitely."
Cowell took over from Martin Whitmarsh as group CEO at Aston Martin
in July 2024, before later assuming the team principal
responsibilities in conjunction. Vowles, on the other hand, joined
BAR in 2001, staying with the team through various guises before it
became Mercedes in 2010. This included being chief strategist in
2009, when Brawn GP won the constructors' championship and Jenson
Button won the drivers' title. "And James, you know, James could
have been a team principal at Mercedes if it wasn't about me,"
Wolff added. "I was in his way. So, he chose another route, and he
does that very well as you can see."
