The ‘absolutely perfect’ team Carlos Sainz will bring with him to Williams revealed

Williams’ James Vowles has opened up on his efforts to bring Carlos Sainz across to his team from Ferrari, including “his entourage”.

Sainz has been confirmed as Williams’ second driver for 2025, partnering up with Alex Albon after a lengthy period of negotiation with Williams after Sainz’s tenure at Ferrari was confirmed as ending earlier this year.

James Vowles reveals first conversations with Carlos Sainz

Speaking to media, including PlanetF1.com, following the announcement of Sainz as a Williams driver for 2025, team boss James Vowles revealed that his first contact with the Spaniard actually stemmed back to Abu Dhabi in 2023 – even before the confirmation from Ferrari of the arrival of Lewis Hamilton, and before Sainz became a free agent on the driver market.

“There’s only one driver team I spoke to in Abu Dhabi last year, only one, and it was Carlos, just to be super clear about that,” Vowles explained.

“I didn’t spread bet. I went for one driver that I thought would make the difference.”

With Vowles having only shown interest in Sainz at a time when the Spaniard was, ostensibly, not available for signing, the British team boss said he hadn’t been interested in putting his eggs in too many baskets at that point in time.

“I also thought, for complete transparency, that we wouldn’t have the weight on the car, and you don’t know the numbers, but if we would have been in a points-scoring position every weekend, I actually think it would have been a more difficult choice for him if Ferrari was more on the rocks, and I didn’t know that it would be,” he said.

“My point more was to position myself in the most sensible way possible for that. But, performance drives everything. If you’re in the points, you have a lot more phone calls than if you’re not.”

“I didn’t call or contact anyone else.

“In fact, the only time I did was later in the programme, when it became very clear that Carlos may not join us. At that point, I’ve got to make sure that I put my eggs in multiple baskets to cover it off.

“But he’s aware of when I did that, and it was very late on in the process.

“The reason why I did that, and it’s the same with the public element of things, is I strongly believe in what we’re doing here. I really do believe in what we’re doing, the direction of travel, and why we’ll be successful.”

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Elaborating further on the process, Vowles said that the trio of Carlos’ that constitutes the Sainz camp – Sainz himself, his World Rally and Dakar Champion father Carlos senior, and his manager and cousin Carlos Onoro – are a perfect fit for the Grove-based outfit.

“I believe the same around Carlos as well – if you’re gonna go for an individual is gonna make a difference – and I’m not just focused on how quick he is in the car, I’m focused on how he is as a personality,” he said.

“By the way, this also includes how his entourage is – that includes Carlos, his manager, and Carlos, his father. His father is as performance-driven as Junior. He’s an incredible character and the three of them together come as a package.

“That’s what we need here in Williams. I think the fit is absolutely perfect. It’s the exact words I told them from very beginning to the very end of this journey.

“So the reason for going public on it is because it was the right decision for all parties. I believe that and, as a result of it, why not put your heart on the sleeve and see what happens?

“The worst case is you (the media) pick up on it and tread on it a little bit. I’m okay with that. I need to do everything possible for him to be here.”

Given that Vowles’ first conversation with Sainz pre-dated his availability on the driver market, he was pressed on whether he had had a crystal ball to spot the possibility of him being a free agent months in advance.

“I had no inkling at all,” Vowles said, revealing that his own involvement in Lewis Hamilton’s contract negotiations from his time at Mercedes had not given him any clue that the seven-time F1 World Champion would trigger chaos on the driver market.

“That was a complete shock to me when Lewis was announced, I had absolutely no idea,” he said.

“I knew Lewis had his heart set there eventually but I also knew the end of that deal, because I was a part of it. I was knocked off my chair that day when that happened.”

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