Ted Kravitz ‘quite surprised’ Williams are yet to recruit new technical director

Sky F1’s pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz thought that by now Williams would have had a new technical director and aero chief in place.

The Grove outfit is still very much in a transitional phase as F1 2023 arrives, with new team principal James Vowles settling into the role, following the departure of Jost Capito and technical director FX Demaison after the 2022 campaign.

And Vowles has already made it his “number one” priority to bring in a new technical director and also a head of aerodynamics, with those two vacancies glaring ones to be filled in the team structure.

However, the former Mercedes strategy chief also made it clear that there is no rush to put this new structure in place.

That being said, with the season-opener in Bahrain now only days away, Kravitz admitted his surprise that these two vacancies still exist.

“I am quite surprised that they haven’t found a technical director yet, not least because I think there must be some good internal candidates that they could promote quite quickly,” Kravitz wrote in a Sky Sports Q&A.

“I think the fact that James Vowles, the new team principal, didn’t start until February 20 has probably got quite a lot to do with that and that he wants to have his say, interview some of the candidates and get to know some of the people within the team.

“They haven’t got a head of aerodynamics either, which is also surprising. I think they think, ‘we’ve produced a car, we’re going to go racing before there’s a bit of a pause in April, there aren’t too many races that we won’t have a technical director and head of aero, because we want to make the right decision.’”

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The Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Round 4 of the 2023 season, takes place on April 30, and after that the calendar begins to ramp up a little with three rounds taking place in May.

So, by the time that Formula 1 reaches Azerbaijan, Kravitz expects that Williams will have made their move, as not doing so would signify that “thing are going very wrong”.

“If they don’t have somebody in place for Azerbaijan at the end of April, then things are going very wrong, but I’m sure they will,” Kravitz concluded.