Williams team boss James Vowles has revealed he first approached Carlos Sainz about a potential drive with the team at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, well before the Ferrari charger knew that Lewis Hamilton would replace him at the Scuderia.
After months of speculation surrounding Sainz’s future, the dust settled on Monday with the announcement of a multi-year deal between the driver and Williams.
The Spaniard had been courted by several teams, including Sauber/Audi and Alpine, while also harboring hopes of a potential move to Red Bull or Mercedes.
However, it was Williams that secured Sainz’s signature. Vowles has emphasized that the team had identified Sainz as their top target months ago and acted swiftly on their interest, even before it was clear that the Ferrari driver would be available.
“The conversation has been many months,” Vowles told the media on Tuesday.
“It hasn’t been weeks, of which you’ve been privy to some of it because it’s been a bit more public than I would normally do with a driver discussion, but it actually started way back in Abu Dhabi last year.”
To try and convince Sainz to leave Maranello and move to Grove was an ambitious play by Vowles, even despite Williams’ improved track performance in 2023.
“There’s only one driver I spoke to in Abu Dhabi last year, only one, and it was Carlos, just to be super clear,” he explained.
“I didn’t spread bet. I went for one driver that I thought would make the difference.”
However, Vowles’ hopes took a hit on the back of Williams’ development struggles over the winter in the form of production delays and an overweight FW46 car.
“I 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 [to stay] if Ferrari was more on the rocks, and I didn’t know that it would be,” the Briton explained.
“My point 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.”
But the team’s optimism was revived when out of the blue, Ferrari announced its shock 2025 deal with Hamilton, a move that also took Vowles by complete surprise.
“I had no inkling at all. That was a complete shock to me.,” he said.
“When Lewis was announced, absolutely no idea. I knew Lewis had his heart set there eventually, but I also know the end of that deal, because I was a part of it, and I was knocked off my chair the day that that happened.”
Vowles admitted that he only considered contingency plans in recent weeks when it looked like Sainz might choose another option than Williams, which justified talks with Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Ocon.
“I didn’t call or contact anyone else,” he explained. “In fact, the only time I did was later in the programme where it became very clear that Carlos may not join us.
“And 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.”
Nevertheless, asked whether he was surprised that Red Bull and Mercedes both passed on an opportunity to sign Sainz, Vowles admitted that he was indeed taken aback;
“When you’re in Red Bull’s position where you’ve got a Constructors’ Championship at risk, it’s always a hard decision. But yes, I would have Carlos alongside Max,” he said.
“If you’re in Mercedes, it’s a hard choice. But I think they’ve swayed between not being competitive – in which case it makes sense to invest in the future – to being very competitive.
“Now, it’s a harder decision as to whether you invest in known entities or unknown. But that said, if Mercedes have made that decision, they have far more information than I do.
“It’s more than likely that they’re very confident with the direction that they’ll be travelling in. Whether that be Max or Kimi [Antonelli], I’m unsure.
“But my point is, they’re not fools. They’ve made this decision sensibly.
“And if Red Bull have decided to do this, again, there’s reasons behind it that I won’t be aware of, because they are multiple World Champions.
“So, they don’t make decisions lightly. But I was surprised to answer your question.”
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