Red Bull and AlphaTauri have been strong forces in Formula 1 since their entries in 2005. And since then, the duo has worked together, with the latter acting as a sister team of the former. However, many Formula One observers believe that this will also be the case with Mercedes and Williams following the appointment of James Vowles, the former Silver Arrows strategy director, as the team principal of Williams.

And while Toto Wolff and James himself have denied that Williams won’t be the Mercedes-B team, the fans aren’t convinced yet. And another person who is not convinced is Sky Sports commentator and former driver Karun Chandhok, who has expressed his suspicion about the deal and everything that followed the suit.

“I do wonder whether there’s some Mercedes element to this deal,” Karun said to Sky Sports F1 as quoted by Planet F1, “because it’s very rare that you find someone certainly in a senior position of a team move across with zero gardening leave, and James has done that, so clearly a very amicable thing.”

“I mean, to the point of which I think Mercedes, basically, were orchestrating the press announcement in some ways, certainly liaising with the media.”

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James Vowles would be under tremendous pressure to prove himself and establish Williams as a separate identity from Mercedes. The suspicion of an understood deal also stems from the fact that Toto Wolff hasn’t expressed much of his opinion despite Vowles taking away some good engineers from his former employer.

Christian Horner expresses concern over the appointment

James and Toto have both strictly denied any claims of collusion between the two teams, despite Mercedes being the power unit supplier of the Williams team. Moreover, Williams is also the technological partner of the Silver Arrows.

Addressing the appointment and speculations about the formation of the Mercedes-B team, Christian Horner wasn’t far behind. As per the GP Blog, quoted from Auto, Motor und Sport, he said, “But it will be obviously interesting to see if there is a closer alignment between those two teams at the upcoming F1 Commission meetings and other interactions with the commercial rights holder and regulator.”

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Horner points out an important aspect that many people miss. Having a B team would be helpful for Toto and the squad during the meetings and, in a way, provide two votes on key issues, where he could be against other teams in the paddock. What do you think of this appointment? Will James and Williams bow to Mercedes and Toto? Or will they get their own way?