Williams set record straight on ‘special exit clause’ in Carlos Sainz’s F1 deal

James Vowles has rubbished a report that there’s a clause in Carlos Sainz’s Williams deal that allows him to leave, even before his first laps in 2025, if Mercedes or Red Bull come knocking.

After six months of speculation about his next F1 team, prompted by Ferrari’s decision not to renew his contract in favour of signing Lewis Hamilton, Sainz announced on Monday he’d been joining Williams next season.

Carlos Sainz has signed a multi-year deal to race for Williams starting in 2025

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Declaring Williams is “the right place” to continue his F1 journey , the three-time grand prix winner added: “The ultimate goal of bringing Williams back to where it belongs, at the front of the grid, is a challenge that I embrace with excitement and positivity.

“I am convinced that this team has all the right ingredients to make history again and starting on January 1 I will give my absolute best to drive Williams forward alongside every single member of the team.”

There was, however, a question mark over that January 1 date.

According to F1-Insider.com, Sainz’s “€10 million” Williams deal came with a special clause in the contract that meant he may never race for Williams.

‘Above all,’ claimed the publication, ‘his contract is said to contain a clause that allows him not to start his job at Williams at all or to quit if the opportunity arises to move to Mercedes or Red Bull in 2025.’

That, however, has been denied by Williams team boss Vowles.

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“No, no,” he told selected media including PlanetF1.com.

“Because, I’m not saying it is anyone on this table, there was only a handful of people in the world that know what we’re talking about. And that’s not even within the team as well.

“And it’s definitely not journalists that are outside this motorhome.”

But that wasn’t the only Williams rumour that Vowles refuted after former F1 driver Marcus Ericsson claimed the out-going Logan Sargeant, who has now officially lost his race seat to Sainz, is no longer speaking with his team boss.

“I was told by some American friends who know Sargeant [that] he doesn’t have fun in that team. He thinks it’s really hard and apparently he and Vowles don’t even talk with each other anymore , they barely greet each other,” said the IndyCar driver.

“It’s completely cut off between them.”

That too was refuted by Vowles who said: “First and foremost there are, I’m not saying any of you around this table, odd stories that appear.

“Logan and myself talk, I’m not going to say daily, but on a race weekend definitely daily and outside of that several times in a week, because my job is to do the absolute best that I can for him, because ultimately if we’re scoring points, we need both drivers on song for doing so.

“Second to that I have a responsibility towards him. He is still going to be a professional racing driver in the future and he’s still part of Williams and in that regard we have an investment from the start of the year and it will continue.”

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