{"id":310919,"date":"2025-11-26T23:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310919\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T23:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:15:17","slug":"f1-news-williams-team-principal-james-vowles-to-race-at-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310919\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Williams team principal James Vowles to race at Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/XPB_1383669_HiRes.jpg\" alt=\"F1 team principal to race at Abu Dhabi\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJames Vowles is set to get behind the wheel for the first time since joining Williams. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n<p>Vowles will stay on at Yas Marina to contest the December 14 endurance race, joining 2024 Gulf 12 Hours Pro-Am winner Alexander West and International GT Open regulars Mark Sansom and Marco Pulcini in a Garage 59-run McLaren 720S GT3.<\/p>\n<p>It marks his first race outing since <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/mercedes-strategist-named-new-williams-team-principal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">taking charge at Williams in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe chance to put on a race helmet again is something I relish,\u201d Vowles said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGarage 59 is a team I know well from our time together in 2022, and the Gulf 12 Hours is a fantastic event with a competitive grid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be a pleasure to share the car with Alex, Mark and Marco, and to experience racing from the driver\u2019s seat again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vowles previously raced with Garage 59 in the 2022 Asian Le Mans Series, as well as a one-off touring car outing in 2025, and has completed several test outings this year in preparation for the event.<\/p>\n<p>Garage 59 team principal Andrew Kirkaldy said the squad was equally enthusiastic about the reunion, recalling Vowles\u2019 contribution to the team during their Asian Le Mans Series campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thoroughly enjoyed working with James during the 2022 Asian Le Mans campaign,\u201d Kirkaldy said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis approach and professionalism, and of course his knowledge of strategy, made it a very enjoyable collaboration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBringing him back for the Gulf 12 Hours is something we\u2019re all excited about, and we\u2019re looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together in Abu Dhabi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First held in 2012, the Gulf 12 Hours has become a flagship end-of-year GT event, staged at Yas Marina shortly after the F1 finale.<\/p>\n<p>The race features an eight-hour opening segment followed by a four-hour sprint after a two-hour break that allows fans into the pitlane for garage access and driver meet-and-greets.<\/p>\n<p>  <a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/289522\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" alt=\"\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763784376_117_289522.png\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Vowles is set to get behind the wheel for the first time since joining Williams. Image: XPB&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,21764,7499,85,819],"class_list":{"0":"post-310919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-james-vowles","14":"tag-slot4","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}