James Vowles expands on how he pursued Carlos Sainz into signing up a deal with Williams for 2025 F1 season and beyond.
It was longtime coming and was finally announced a day after the F1 Belgian GP as the sport headed towards summer break, that Sainz will join Williams after signing a multi-year deal starting from the 2025 season, to partner Alexander Albon.
Ever since the shock news of Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari came about, Sainz has been one of the hottest properties on the F1 grid. The sure shot link was with Mercedes, who would have been happy to have an experienced campaigner alongside George Russell.
But that line started to diminish as the season progressed. Williams came about a surprise contender which also had the likes of Sauber/Audi and a later comer Alpine. But the link to the Grove-based F1 outfit never went away, especially with Vowles going public.
Having signed up Albon, the focus shifted to getting Sainz on board and it finally happened after months of try. Vowles explained to media how it all started where they had informal talks even before the Hamilton news was out in the public.
That news pushed Vowles into serious mode. “The first time I spent time with his family was in Abu Dhabi,” said Vowles to Formula 1 website. “We had to run them around the back so they could come upstairs and come to my office to chat [without being seen]. That was the first time I chatted to all of them, and it was the first time I got to know them.
“We connected because they have family values which are very similar to my own – which is about honesty, being performant on track with no politics, and it’s about how do you do the best job you can with the equipment you have. It resonated a lot between both parties. This was Abu Dhabi 2023, so no one knows what is going to happen with Carlos.
“What I’m doing is making sure they are aware we’re serious about moving back towards the front and here we are – and get to know me. Then the news struck with Lewis, which caught me off-guard, and caught Carlos off-guard at the same time. So, I started the normal negotiation procedure.
“All the way through – and it’s worth checking with Carlos as he’ll tell you the same thing – everything I have told him is the truth behind this project, so that means all the good bits and all the bad bits. It’s just been consistent from start to finish. This is who we are, this what we’re investing in, this why I believe in it, this is what it looks like in the future – do you want to be part of it?
“I believe in this project; I left the comfort of Mercedes to be here for good reason. We have a history that makes us the second-most successful team on the grid, we have real tangible investors who are serious behind this project, we want success and this is what success looks like.
“Fundamentally, the same couldn’t be said up and down the grid to the same level and the same requirements. And I think if no one takes this as a sign that Williams has changed, nothing will change you,” summed up Vowles. The choice to go for Sainz was rather simple. They had Albon but they lacked slight experience of a ‘leader-type’ driver.
The Thai racer gave his inputs but even for Albon, he was on the recovery mode from his Red Bull exit. And to have Sainz, who spent time with Renault, McLaren and Ferrari in recent years, it was a gold mine for Williams.
“I needed a leader, not just someone who is quick in the car,” continued Vowles. “I wanted everything around them to be just right in order to create performance. Carlos has that. If you look at every team he’s gone to – look at where they started and where they finished.
“You’ll see he has a history of ending in a much better place in the team than when he started. I had more late-night events in a hotel room than I want to think about. A lot of late nights, lots of phone calls and him having the space to be able to think about it before we executed. I was very public in the fact I wanted him as part of the team.
“You can look like a hero or zero – I knew that from the beginning, but I wanted him to know how much he is a part of what I think the future of Williams looks like. The way you do that is put the heart on the end of your sleeve and you put it out there for the world to see. You can get hurt or you can get the strongest feeling emotionally from a connection from something.
“I’d much rather he and the world knows he’s an incredible athlete – and that I know we would work well together. If it had gone the other way, I still would have no regrets. You have to do what it takes in order to get the right people in the organisation. It’s hard to know the alternative side if it hadn’t happened – but all the work was worth it,” summed up Vowles, who had to be patient with Sainz as well.
As noted above, the Spaniard had pretty good offers on the table with Sauber/Audi and even Alpine. There were a lot of deliberation behind the scenes with regards to project, the length of it and even the money involved, since Sainz is counted as a high profile driver.
“I did say to him it’s probably the longest [contract in terms of length], by a long way,” said Vowles. “And Lewis’s contracts are difficult, to be clear. There were moments across the last few months where I’ve said ‘if you’re coming for the money or the short term, it won’t work for either party’. This is a proper journey.
“It’s going to be difficult, but incredibly rewarding. He was the first to point out to us that the opposition is incredible. We have one of the biggest OEMs in the world [Audi], one his father has won with. You can’t easily turn it down. You have a team that has won a race more recently than we have. We can’t ignore that.
“But what he saw with us is not where we are today but where we’re going. This is huge, this is really important in our stepping stone of how we move forward. Emotionally, it made everything worthwhile in just a second. He’s a tremendous milestone and it means a lot to me and the team.
“We played the team a video of Carlos announcing the news and you could not hear a word of it for at least the first 45 seconds because of the cheers, the shouts, the clapping. That reaction tells me everything I need to know – which is they believe in this decision as much as I believe in it. But now I need to demonstrate to him, the team and the world, that we’re on the right path,” summed up Vowles.
Here’s official announcement from Williams
Here’s Carlos Sainz in Belgium
Here’s Carlos Sainz and others in Hungary
Here’s last on the driver market from Silverstone
Here’s these F1 drivers statements from Austria
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact