How Vowles helped create his own young driver “void” at Williams F1

Among other duties, Vowles was in charge of Mercedes’ young driver programme before joining Williams as a team principal this year.

Under his watch Mercedes recruited several top-line prospects, including Italian prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli who is rapidly rising through the single-seater ranks.

Now 16, Antonelli smashed through the karting pyramid in 2018 and 2019, which landed him a spot on the Mercedes junior programme in 2019 at the tender age of 12.

But with…