George Russell reveals Mercedes’ James Vowles succession plan

George Russell has stated that James Vowles had already handed over many of duties ahead of his Williams move.

The long-time Mercedes employee made the switch from the Silver Arrows to their customer team Williams last month to take on the team principal role vacated last year by Jost Capito.

It marked the end of a decade spent with the Brackley-based squad and Vowles was one of the senior staff members at Mercedes, serving as motorsport strategy director in his final role with the team, so naturally thoughts have turned to how the Silver Arrows will fare without him.

Russell though revealed that Vowles had already handed over a lot of his strategic duties to others in the team last year and was in an overseeing role rather than a hands-on one.

“Firstly, really happy for James,” Russell told media including PlanetF1.com. “I think he thoroughly deserves the opportunity and he’s an incredibly hard worker.

“I think for us on a strategic level, James had already handed over his duties to others within the team and he was just overseeing.

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“Throughout all of last year, the decisions were being made by others. So in that regard, I think James has left us in very competent hands.”

Mercedes to Williams is a path travelled by Russell himself but in the other direction last year when he swapped the backmarkers for what he hoped would be a championship contender.

So Russell is in a better place than most to predict what kind of environment Vowles will have walked into when he arrived at Williams, but said he did not think there was any better candidate to improve the team’s fortunes.

“I’m sure he’s going to have a few surprises when he goes to Williams,” the 25-year-old said. “Naturally, when you’ve spent so long at a team, with so many championships under his belt, [there will be a difference].

“But to be honest, I can’t think of anybody better Williams could have hired for the job they need to undertake.”