The car has now passed all its impact tests, Vowles added, and drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon “stand shoulder to shoulder with me”.
“They’re clearly, as I am, disappointed,” said Vowles.
“They want to be out there testing the car, and whilst they’re in our driver and loop simulator in tandem now, to increase that programme, it isn’t the same.”
Vowles said the main problem was the factory was unable to cope with the demand put on it by the car build process.
“It’s more of an output than anything else, of pushing not just the boundaries of design but the boundaries of just simply how many components can be pushed through the factory in a very short space of time,” said Vowles.
“The car we’ve built is about three times more complicated than anything we have put through our business beforehand.
“So, to put that in perspective, it means the amount of load going through our system is about three times what it used to be.
“And we started falling a little bit behind and late on parts. There are compromises you can make as a result of it.
“In addition to that, we have absolutely pushed the boundaries of what we’re doing in certain areas. And one of those is in certain corresponding tests that go with it.”
However, he said the team were on target to make it to the second pre-season test, which takes place in Bahrain on 11-13 February.
Vowles added: “We could have made Barcelona testing. Simple as that. But in doing so, I would have to turn upside down the impact on spares, components, and updates across Bahrain, [the first race in] Melbourne, and beyond.
“And the evaluation of it was that for running in a cold, damp Barcelona, against doing a (rig) test, against the spare situation, and frankly, there was zero points for running in a shakedown test, we made the decision, and I stand by it, that the right thing to do is to make sure we’re turning up at Bahrain, correctly prepared, and prepared in Melbourne as well.”
Vowles did not directly answer a question as to whether the car was significantly over the minimum weight limit, saying it was impossible to respond to “murmurings in the media” because it was not possible to know the answer until the car was assembled.
He also said he had “experts and specialists” working with Williams to try to improve their factory operations.
