James Vowles Reveals Quality That Made Carlos Sainz His First Choice: “We Connected a Lot on That”

After several months of speculation, Williams finally signed Carlos Sainz for 2025 and beyond in July. Although Williams’ team principal James Vowles has always said that the Spaniard was his first choice, he has now revealed why that was the case.

Vowles recently appeared on The Fast and the Curious podcast when the hosts asked him why he decided to sign Sainz for reasons other than his hair and driving skills. In reply, Vowles said,

“Williams clearly isn’t where we want to be at the moment. We are restructuring ourselves and rebuilding ourselves. And what I therefore need with Alex and whoever was driving besides him is a leader, an individual who wants to come and fundamentally help me and stand by my side as we find all the areas where we got to improve“.

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Vowles then added that he connected most with Sainz because he is a “performance machine“. He revealed that the Spaniard works relentlessly hard to help the team improve in all areas.

Since Vowles too believes in the idea of continuously improving, he said, “We connected a lot on that“. The 45-year-old then explained how Sainz has helped all the teams he drove for move forward, and hence, why he is confident that the current Ferrari driver can help Williams in a similar way.

Sainz was also on Mercedes and Red Bull’s radar

After Vowles successfully managed to sign Sainz, he expressed his surprise because none of the top teams decided to sign him. The Spaniard was on the radar of both Mercedes and Red Bull but both teams decided to look the other way.

The Silver Arrows were reluctant to offer Sainz a long-term contract as they were always keen to promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli. On the other hand, reports claimed that Red Bull decided not to sign Sainz because of his tumultuous past with Max Verstappen.

Once it became clear that neither Mercedes nor Red Bull were keen on signing Sainz, there were rumors that he may join Audi. However, it was he who was reluctant to sign for the German outfit because he reportedly did not see the same promise in them that he saw in Williams.

As for why he decided to sign for Williams, Sainz said, “In the end, James convinced me with his plan, his vision, his conviction, his self-confidence. I think he had a very clear target and this was very important for me“.