In Azerbaijan, Carlos Sainz achieved two of his most notable results of the season: a second-place start in the qualifying round under challenging conditions, followed by a third-place finish in the race. For Sainz, this was more than just a strong performance — it was a turning point after a difficult start at Williams. According to team boss James Vowles, a ‘reset’ meeting between him and the Spaniard prior to the weekend played a crucial role.
On the Thursday before the race, Vowles invited his driver out for dinner. This was not a standard team meeting, but an honest, open discussion about how things were really going — and more importantly, how they could improve. “It was essentially a kind of reset,” Vowles tells The Race. “We sat together at the table and said: ‘Okay, what are we going to do differently from now on? How can I help you? And how are we going to tackle this together?'” According to the team boss, this openness had an infectious effect. “Carlos was really in a good place afterwards. It didn’t surprise me that he started the weekend so strongly. He was immediately in the groove, you could tell.”
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“We have a good relationship,” he says of his collaboration with Sainz. “We talk very openly about what’s going well, but also about what’s going wrong. And most importantly: how we can make something of it together.” According to Vowles, it’s not that Sainz suddenly started driving better — the speed was always there. “His performances have never been the problem,” he explains. “But when things go against you, and you get stuck in that, it becomes difficult to get out. That’s why that turnaround was so important.”
