Carlos Sainz reveals that his current team boss, James Vowles, approached him early on about a move to Williams. The Brit even approached the Madrid-born driver before Ferrari announced that Lewis Hamilton would be joining the Italian team. Vowles’ confidence in Sainz ultimately tipped the scales in favor of the Spanish driver choosing the British team.
Lewis Hamilton‘s announcement of his move to Ferrari last year was the premature starting gun for the silly season. This forced Carlos Sainz to urgently search for a new employer, which he eventually found in Williams. However, 2024 was not the first year in which the Spaniard spoke with team boss James Vowles.
“James approached me in December (2023) and said, ‘I think you’re the perfect candidate to lead Williams to my goal, to make Williams competitive again.’ This was two months before Ferrari announced they were terminating my contract,” Sainz candidly shares in the High Performance podcast. According to Sainz, Vowles could not have known at that time that his stint with the Scuderia would be over a year later. “James himself said, ‘I know you’re probably getting a new contract with Ferrari, but I just wanted to let you know that I’m here for you.’ He was the first to come to me, before everything happened.”
Vowles, A Strong Leader
Vowles proved to have a foresight, as two months later Ferrari announced they would be signing Lewis Hamilton from 2025. In the meantime, Sainz was very pleased that the Williams team boss had already approached him. “James gave me such a good first impression of Williams,” the Spaniard continues. “He sees things in me that others might not see. They had a major upgrade for the second half of the 2024 season, and he also gave me some data on the 2025 car. That looked good. But it was mainly the fact that they have a strong leader in James,” Sainz explains his ultimate choice for Williams.
