Guenther Steiner sets deadline for James Vowles to save his Williams F1 job
James Vowles is under pressure at Williams, according to former F1 team boss Guenther Steiner.
Guenther Steiner has questioned the future of Williams Formula 1 team principal James Vowles amid its ongoing woes.
Williams has endured a miserable 2026 season, having been left on the back foot at the start of the all-new era of F1 regulations after missing the first week of testing and producing a car that was both badly off the pace and overweight.
Despite shedding weight from the car, Williams has made little progress and sits ninth in the constructors’ championship with just 11 points heading into the summer break.
And former Haas team principal Steiner has issued a blunt assessment of Vowles based on how this season has gone so far.
"As much as I think he’s not doing a good job, I think you need to at least give him time to read all his emails,” Steiner joked on The Red Flags Podcast.
“He got them at the beginning of the year. He knows what to do. He just didn’t have time to read them. So, let him read his emails. Find a solution by the end of the year. If he hasn’t got to all the emails by the end of the year, then let him go.”
Asked how long he would give Vowles to turn things around at Williams, Steiner replied: “I think it’s the beginning of next season, if it’s the same as this season. I think they went into spam, or were deleted, these emails and he needs to go then.
"If it is continuing the way that it currently is, five or six races into [next year], there’ll be changes. You’ve had enough time to read your emails and improve things. And if you haven’t, then you’re out.”
Williams enjoyed a hugely successful 2025 campaign in which Carlos Sainz scored two stunning podiums on his way to helping the British outfit clinch fifth place in the constructors’ championship.
But the Grove-based squad has failed to build on that progress, or capitalise on the 2026 regulation overhaul, as it had targeted.
“They promised us at the beginning of the season, 'We will be back; we know exactly what to do,” Steiner added. “Guess what? They're going backwards instead of forwards at the moment. All the progress is in the wrong direction.”
Williams’ misery in 2026 has left question marks hanging over the future of Sainz, who is understood to be considering his options.
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