Williams boss James Vowles has rolled up his sleeves and signed Piers Thynne, an engineer who was key to McLaren's success. The reason is clear: his team takes an eternity to move ideas from the computer to the track. While the champions fly, they are still stuck in the workshop. For the fans, this means Williams is looking to stop being the backmarker of innovation and get closer to the top teams.
The bottleneck holding Williams back on track 🏎️
The problem is not ideas, but execution speed. Williams is accumulating delays in the workflow between CAD design and parts manufacturing. Thynne, who optimized these processes at McLaren to shorten lead times, arrives to implement more agile methodologies. The goal is to reduce the time between a concept being born on the drawing board and being materialized on the car. Vowles knows that without that efficiency, they will continue to see the dust of Red Bull and Ferrari from afar.
The secret is not to take a nap in the workshop ⏰
Hopefully Thynne's signing includes a stopwatch for the team's coffee breaks. Because if Williams takes longer to go from an idea to reality than a Monday to get back to work, something smells fishy. Now it's time to see if the new guru can keep the engineers from resting on their laurels or, worse yet, from mistaking the wind tunnel for a sauna. F1 is unforgiving, especially of napping.