Formula 1 can be a turbulent ride at times, but for Williams boss James Vowles the 2024 season has been extreme.

From starting the year with an overweight challenger, having no spare car early on, winning the race for Carlos Sainz‘s services, dropping Logan Sargeant and then becoming a hero in Argentina because of Franco Colapinto‘s brilliant form. It has been hard to keep up with it all.

Bouncing between these highs and lows may have left even Vowles struggling to catch his breath, but he is equally not a person who lets emotional swings get to him.

He well knows that he has been employed by Williams to help get the team back towards the front of the grid. And, while the Grove-based outfit has had some good days in the sun so far this year, he accepts there is still an awful long way to go before he can feel he is anywhere near accomplishing his mission.

“When I’m asked the question, are you happy with the first half of the season? You go ‘clearly not’,” Vowles told Motorsport.com.

“We had so much potential and performance in the car that we didn’t utilise, and that’s frustrating. But my head is that everything is just stepping stones towards the long-term goal. That’s how I see things.

Alex Albon, Williams FW46

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“Carlos is a fantastic addition, but he is just one of 1000 things that we need to do on our path towards going back towards the front.

“It’s the same as adding performance to the car and tangibly demonstrating to ourselves, not the world, that we are able to develop a car successfully against what is a very fierce field now.

“So, because I have that grounding of ’26, ’27 and just trying to get some fundamentals in place, you detach yourself from anything that you’re doing at that stage.

“It sounds odd, but it gives you the grounding you need, not to get carried away with the highs and lows of it all, because there’s plenty.”

Dropping Sargeant was ‘tough’

Perhaps the most difficult moment for Vowles came after the Dutch Grand Prix when he had to make the call to drop Sargeant.

With the American having not made the progress that had been hoped for against Alex Albon, a hefty crash with a newly updated car on Saturday morning in Zandvoort proved to be the final straw.

Logan Sargeant, Williams Racing, James Vowles, Williams Racing Team Principal

Photo by: Williams

While some individuals in the F1 paddock may revel in the opportunity of getting rid of people, Vowles admits it was not easy for him.

“I knew what came with the job when I chose to do it, but if you look up and down the grid, there’s very few team principals that ever changed their driver halfway through the year,” he said. “It is tough to do.

“But what I’m driven by is openness and honesty. Logan knew long before that point that he was at risk, and he knew what his targets were.

“I preferred to lay it down in a really raw way: ‘Here’s where you’re not performing at a level we need to, and that’s in your hands. I’ll help you as much as possible. But if we don’t get there, this is where we will make changes.’

“So as a result of that, I’m comfortable with myself, that I gave every opportunity that I could with Logan, and supported him in that opportunity at the same time.

“But my responsibility isn’t to one individual in this team, it’s to 1000 people that are here every weekend day in and day out.”

Franco Colapinto, Williams Racing

Photo by: Williams

The Colapinto impact

While dropping a driver is never nice, Vowles would probably admit that he could never have imagined Sargeant’s replacement Colapinto doing so well.

The Argentinian seemed instantly at home in F1 machinery and, after just missing out on the points in Italy, his eighth place in Baku drew massive praise from up and down the pitlane.

Vowles sees parallels to what has happened to Colapinto to his own journey through F1.

“I was a graduate 30 years ago,” said Vowles. “Someone trusted me and gave me opportunity all the way through my career, and I’m here today.

“Franco was someone I’ve known even before he joined Williams. He had no practice, jumped in the car, and did what he could with it.

“He’s bloody quick, deserved a chance, and I could see something that the rest of the world couldn’t see. He’s delivered on that, and it is a feel good factor. It really is.”

Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Vowles also thinks that the story of giving a youngster like Colapinto a chance is one that stands true for bringing the next generation of talent through at Williams.

“At my core and Williams’ core, and that is why we align so well, is investing in future generations,” added Vowles. “Franco epitomises that fundamentally.

“We’re doing the same within the factory with brilliant graduates that we’re pushing through the organisation and giving opportunity to.

“It’s rewarding because that’s really at the core of what I want. I want future generations to not push me out of my role, but challenge me to the level where I have to let go of the reins of something I have a responsibility for.”

That Schumacher remark

It is not just on track where Vowles has been in the spotlight though, because he has learned some tough lessons off it too.

Perhaps one of the biggest came at the Italian Grand Prix when Vowles found himself at the centre of a media frenzy after he made a remark about Mick Schumacher that grabbed the headlines.

Mick Schumacher, Reserve Driver, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

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Speaking about the decision to bring in rookie Colapinto rather than more experienced options like Schumacher, Vowles said: “I think we have to be straightforward about this. Mick isn’t special, he would just be good.“

The fallout of his ‘not special’ remark was quite extreme, and Vowles quickly realised his phrasing had not been great – which is why he apologised to Schumacher and his family.

Looking back at events now, Vowles admits it taught him a good lesson in being more careful in what he says.

“It’s difficult because that one for me, that’s clearly not what I meant, which is why I went and immediately apologised to him, his family and everyone around it,” he said.

“I was devastated at the time, because it showed me the power of a few words, and that I have to be far more diligent in what I’m doing and how I’m saying it.

“It was a learning lesson that I hope stays with me forever.”

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The IndyCar Series landed perhaps its biggest catch under the Penske Entertainment era after announcing a return to Texas with a race on the streets of Arlington in 2026. 

The significance of the announcement was in the partnerships formed, with Penske Entertainment teaming up with the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys and REV Entertainment, the official events partner of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.

A 14-turn, 2.73-mile circuit will weave around AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field, which serve as the respective homes of the Cowboys and Rangers, and through the entertainment district of a city that sells 1.6 million tickets to spectators for various events annually.

Mark Miles, the president and CEO of Penske Entertainment, which owns the IndyCar Series, sat down with Motorsport.com to discuss the event and the strategy of the series moving forward, as well as how new broadcast partner FOX Sports will factor in.

Let’s get the hard question out of the way first: There are people asking why this couldn’t work at Texas Motor Speedway, and why IndyCar is headed to Arlington?

Mark Miles: Well, I guess the first thing is, as everybody I think knows, we really haven’t had success lately in finding a date that was going to be reliable over time, and that’s important to us. That created the opportunity to think about it because we definitely wanted to be in North Texas. And then for some time we’ve had a dialogue — and for a shorter time, but several months, we’ve had a lot of work between our team and the Cowboys and the Rangers to explore the possibilities. I think [the announcement] does speak for itself. We’ve been articulating an event strategy for some time, which is that number one, we are not walking away from the desire to have a good mix of the various formats of races for us; that includes, of course, ovals and temporary street races and road courses.

So, that’s first, and this doesn’t represent any distance between that philosophy and the announcement. Then we’ve also said we want to look for high impact opportunities to be in hot growing markets and to approach them in two different ways. One is where we have become the promoter. By ’26, that will be the case for the two IndyCar races in Indy, in Detroit, for the race or races in Iowa, [and] Milwaukee. Now, through this partnership, we’re part of the promoter group for Arlington — and I think there’ll be one or two more examples of that by 2026, if not before. And we think that’s important, both in terms of the markets and our ability to really control the effort to upgrade our events.

We want to do that by taking control of more races ourselves and also by looking for opportunities for high level partners. What could be a higher level opportunity, in that regard, than the Cowboys and the Rangers in Arlington at that facility? I hope that everybody gets a chance to look at the video that was done to portray how the racetrack will look. I think it is going to be a great racetrack. We’ve got great partners. We’ve got time to do it right in the first installment for ‘26 in the spring. This is, kind of, the very first conspicuous example of that part of the event strategy. And again, I think there’ll be more as time goes forward. I also want to say that this does not represent walking away from our philosophy of having a healthy mix of three formats of racing for IndyCar. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to have third party promoters as we do now. We’re just going to be opportunistic to look for events we can run ourselves and for opportunities to have high level partnerships within the promotion of our events.

The magnitude of taking IndyCar to a level of involvement with major teams such as the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers was certainly felt at the track unveiling at Texas Live! on Tuesday. Talking with Santino Ferrucci, Alex Palou, and Josef Newgarden, there was a big-fight feel to this that really had them buzzing in a way that made this feel like it rivals Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix. What kind of stratosphere do you think this raises IndyCar to?

MM: Yeah, we think IndyCar deserves to be understood to be a major league sport, and I think sometimes you are judged by the company you keep. That’s another way to emphasize the strategy of looking for these kinds of high level partnerships. By the way, just related to promoting events, but also in upgrading other things we do, like marketing, communications, and hospitality. There are all kinds of partners out there that are very capable, very much major league and we’ll continue to be very selective, but look for those opportunities in those and other functions of putting on big events to up our game and show everybody IndyCar’s major league sport.

Arlington Grand Prix track map

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

What went into the details of the track layout?

MM: Well, it took a lot of work. Tony Cotman is the lead for us in designing tracks, but he has two roles for us: One is always looking at where we race to make sure that they’re safe, but also good racing and his other function is to help design them. We had this fabulous opportunity to basically take a white canvas. The entertainment district there is just a huge opportunity to put our best foot forward in the way we race. We could look at that whole space. It doesn’t have many of the complications or challenges that street races can have when you’re right in the middle of a downtown and it’s a lot of area that even things like the streetlights that are in the parking lots tend to be further apart than in a lot of places, which is useful.

“We could see how we could have a nine-tenths of a mile straightaway, which obviously gets us up, we think, 200-plus miles per hour. That’s a big part of our speed, obviously a big part of our racing and our brand that then immediately goes into a hard right-hand turn and we could engineer a track accordingly. It’s also wide. There are a couple places where we’re still working on how wide it can be, but a good example of the width is that straightaway. So, it was kind of a blank canvas and Tony and our team, people like Michael Montri, who have the experience of laying out that track in Detroit and elsewhere, could really go to town and make the most of the real estate that’s there.

When you have massive partners that are a part of something like this, I think the biggest curiosity is the promotional element. With that, what kind of activations – and we’ve heard rumblings FOX could be promoting it as early as this weekend’s NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions – should be anticipated?

MM: Well, FOX has a deep relationship with both our partner organizations and they’re absolutely all-in and supportive of this innovation for us. But also, I think the two organizations and their sort of assets, along with our ability to provide focus through the creation of the grand prix committee that will be focused all the time on just that, is potent. So, Bill Miller (President of the Grand Prix of Arlington) will be putting together the team. It will be small, but waking up every morning thinking about the grand prix there. But we also have these great relationships with the Cowboys and the Rangers and their sponsor lists, those relationships, their suite customers, their season ticket customers, their club customers, and that’s a pretty amazing base from which to go out and start to sell. So, we’ll have the focus of a dedicated staff right there in Dallas, with obviously the full cooperation of the Cowboys and the Rangers. I think that it’s just a remarkable constellation of assets that we hope to make the most of.

Grand Prix of Arlington rendering

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Does announcing this event, with the possibility of other event announcements looming, alter the expectation for the number of races on the new FOX deal? Can the number grow to, say 20, or is there a cap limit to the number of races that can be broadcast, per se?

MM: Our agreement with FOX calls for us to provide them 17 races that are championship races in the normal season as it’s structured now. And we like the number 17, that’s why it’s in our agreement with FOX. It’s not a limit. It’s what we expect to do. But whether it’s for us and the owners and the drivers or for FOX or our sponsors, we see another great opportunity, I think we’ll pursue it. If that means one less doubleheader or some other adjustment on the calendar, we’ll take things case by case and and act accordingly. I don’t think people should look at us as having an ambition to get to 20, for example, which is kind of implicit in your question. Seventeen is, we think the sweet spot, but we’ve talked about it and if there’s such a thing as another Arlington out there, and that means all things considered looking at all the races on the calendar, the best thing to do to go is to go to 18, then we’ll look at that. But there are probably ways even in the short term to add and still stay at about 17.

2007 Mexico City race winner Sebastien Bourdais, Newman Haas Lanigan Racing

Photo by: Dan R. Boyd / Motorsport Images

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Do you anticipate, whether it is next year or in 2026, FOX Deportes for the entire schedule or a select number of races to help generate interest of the Hispanic audience whether in this southern region of the United States, Mexico, etc.?

MM: Well, the opportunity to reach more Hispanic fans and make more Hispanic fans is important to us and our partners in Arlington vis-a-vis FOX. FOX Deportes is contractually committed to take three races. The plan is the first race of the season, St. Pete, the Indy 500 and the finale, but that’s not a cap either. That’s really a minimum. And as we get closer to making the ’26 schedule and Deportes sees how they do with the three races that they’ll have next year, I think it’s entirely possible that they would add events. And given the importance of Hispanic population in that market in North Texas, it’s an obvious place to look. But it’s not just about FOX. In talking with [Dallas Cowboys’ owner] Jerry Jones [on Tuesday], he was telling us about how important marketing to Hispanic people is.

He told us about the tours he’s done in Mexico to do earned media events and to publicize the Cowboys in Mexico itself, not just the southern part of the United States. And that’s music to our ears. We talked to him about Pato [O’Ward] and how he’s a natural star and how he would be happy to be engaged in this event and do all he can, as he did at Texas Motor Speedway to help promote and grow the event. I don’t want to say too much about it, but it’s conceivable that we could end up with an event in Mexico in the next few years. And if we did that, it would certainly be in the spring. So, a connection between an event in Arlington and an event in Mexico would be a powerful opportunity to bridge and cross promote the various sports to the Hispanic fans just south of the border and in the southern United States. I think it’s a big opportunity for us, and the Cowboys and the Rangers see it as an opportunity for them, to strengthen our appeal to Hispanic fans.

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No matter where you live in the US, there’s a high likelihood F1 Arcade is eyeing available properties in your area. The immersive racing experience, which opened its second American location in Washington, DC this week, is poised for rapid expansion with plans to launch 30 venues across the country over the next five years.

Much like how Topgolf revolutionized the way Americans interact with the sport of golf, F1 Arcade is aiming to translate the high-octane world of Formula 1 into an accessible, social experience for everyone — not just for die-hard motorsport fans or hobby sim racers.

“We market to a wide audience,” says Jon Gardner, US president of F1 Arcade, who oversaw the opening of the first location in Boston earlier this year (there are also venues in London and in Birmingham, UK).

“Our customers are split 50/50 male and female. We do see gamers come in but it’s not just for them. We’re seeing that Americans aren’t just here for the racing simulators, they want a full night-out with food, drinks, and entertainment. All signs point to people wanting this kind of social, immersive experience … it really is for everyone.”

F1 Arcade is not only targeting die-hard fans, but other markets, too

Photo by: Farrah Skeiky

F1 Arcade founder and CEO Adam Breeden, who co-founded Puttshack — an upscale version of mini-golf — with Topgolf creators Steven and Dave Jolliffe, is no stranger to the world of sports entertainment. Gardner, who also worked at Puttshack before joining F1 Arcade, says they’ve brought learnings from these golf-centric concepts into Formula 1. “We’re asking, how do you take the magic of F1 — an experience that only 20 people in the world get to have — and bring it to the masses?”

At the core of the approach is curating an experience that’s equally enjoyable for F1 fanatics and those who have never heard of the name Max Verstappen. Only 1% of F1 viewers will ever attend a race in-person, and unlike sports like football or baseball, racing isn’t something fans can easily do in their spare time.

F1 Arcade bridges that gap between the sport and its fans, offering some of the world’s most realistic racing simulators paired with premium food and beverage options, reminiscent of F1’s ultra-exclusive Paddock Club. The result is an ideal space for fans looking to connect with one another, whether on a casual night out or during an early morning race watch party. 

Along with state-of-the-art simulators, customers can enjoy premium food and beverage options

Photo by: Farrah Skeiky

Community-building is central to the business’s strategy, with Gardner pointing to the number of return customers attending the Boston location’s successful watch parties. “They’re a true party,” he says of the DJ-hosted events. “People come in at 6 or 7 a.m. to watch the races – before we’re even allowed to serve alcohol. That’s how passionate they are.” He also stresses the importance of integrating into the fabric within each market they’re entering: “We want to make sure that wherever we’re going, we’re a part of the community.”

The decision to open in Washington DC — a secondary market compared to F1 hubs like Miami, Austin or Las Vegas — was strategic. “DC is such an international city, with ambassadors from all over the world, a thriving sports culture, and a sophisticated food and drink scene,” Gardner says. “There’s also a lot of F1 fans here: Union Market [where the new venue is located] has been showing races for years, and it’s always packed.” 

The Boston location has already seen success by hosting race watch parties for locals

Photo by: Farrah Skeiky

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It’s a formula the business plans to replicate in 28 other American cities while on its pursuit to become a household name in the sports entertainment landscape. “There’s so much runway ahead of us,” Gardner says, noting new locations are slated to open in Philadelphia and Vegas in 2025. The timing is ideal, as the sport continues gaining mainstream popularity, thanks in part to next summer’s ‘F1’ movie starring Brad Pitt and growing celebrity endorsements (even presidential nominee Kamala Harris declared her love for the sport earlier this week).

And Gardner is confident the hype won’t be dying down anytime soon. “I don’t think this moment is going anywhere,” he says confidently.

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