Carlos Sainz will never forget the welcome he received at Williams recently, with his new Team Principal, James Vowles leading the way. The way the Spanish driver was greeted at their headquarters in Grove, will surely speed up the settling-in process for him ahead of the new season.
One would think Sainz might take time to adjust to a new country, new conditions, and a new team after being with Ferrari for four years. But Vowles took him completely by surprise by speaking in Spanish fluently and making him feel at home.
The team members who were applauding Sainz when he went up on stage, laughed at his reaction not too long after. “We are going to speak in Spanish, we can discuss a few things in Spanish too,” the Briton said, in Sainz’s native language and his reaction was that of someone who had just seen a ghost.
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However, Sainz had no idea that it wasn’t the first time Vowles had spoken in Spanish without a prompt. Vowles did so in December 2024 as well, addressing fans in Argentina.
Vowles’ first Spanish monologue was not with Sainz
Vowles made the tough decision to replace Logan Sargeant midway through 2024, bringing in Franco Colapinto as his replacement. This meant that there was yet another driver whose mother tongue was Spanish that Vowles had worked with in the past.
Colapinto fans were so happy with the Williams boss that they labeled him as ‘Tio James’ (translated to Uncle James in English) in the comments on the YouTube video in which Vowles announced the news. Completely justified, since Vowles’ Spanish sounded perfect.
“Uncle James, we already loved you in Argentina for supporting and giving Franco a chance, and now you’re speaking Spanish… we’re giving you citizenship! Let’s go Williams!” a fan wrote under the video.
Now with another Spanish speaking driver joining Williams, it will give Vowles another incentive to practice the language, having revealed in the YouTube video that it had been a few years since he had spoken it. However, if someone were to hear him, they may not realize he is not a native Spanish speaker; such was his fluency.
