James Vowles backs Madrid to become ‘one to watch’ despite calls for changes

Setembro 17, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Williams team principal James Vowles has backed Madrid to become one of Formula 1’s standout events, despite a challenging inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the track.

F1 visited the brand-new Madring circuit last weekend. While new street venues often face logistical teething problems, Vowles praised the event’s organisers.

“First and foremost, well done to the organisers,” the Williams team chief said during the latest episode of The Vowles Verdict. “It’s the first year of the grand prix, and typically that just means the event is a little chaotic, but it wasn’t the case in Madrid.

“In fact, what I would say is it may be one of the races to watch in the future. Half an hour from the city centre, a capital city, 10 minutes, I think, if you took the metro as a result of it.

“Huge space, probably 10 times more space than we would normally have available to us, which has pros and cons. Pros means you can fit more people in. Cons, you wear out your shoe leather walking between the two different arenas and to the cars.”

The race did not come without criticism, though. The circuit lacked overtaking opportunities, leaving many to argue that changes are needed for 2027 to make the racing more exciting.

“In terms of the track itself, as you saw, very technical, and the drivers all commented that it was a difficult challenge for them, an enjoyable challenge for them,” Vowles continued.

“But the racing also suffered slightly, and I’m sure the circuit organisers will be looking into how they can improve that for next year.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

“For us, a difficult grand prix, we knew it was going to be difficult going into it. It’s just exaggerating the issues we have at the moment and we haven’t added performance to the car for far too long and have fallen back relative to teams around us.

“If I now focus on the details you may have seen on the softer compounds, the soft and the medium, we had graining, and that’s where the tyre suddenly just starts to lose a lot more performance every lap. Noticeable on the long runs, not in qualifying conditions.

“But the hard tyre, however, was a tyre, as you saw with a number of cars that could run near enough for the whole race. It was really on the edge, but just about on the good side. That means Pirelli have done a very good job bringing the right tyres to the event.

“It also means the circuit, the tarmac, was in a good state for it as well. As I said, the main real issue is: let’s look into how we can get more overtaking in future years. Otherwise, well done. Brilliant first race.”