Carlos Sainz has finally made the move to sign with a Formula 1 team for 2025 and beyond and the Spaniard has chosen Williams after weeks and even months of deliberation.
As soon as Lewis Hamilton announced he was to join Ferrari in 2025, displacing Sainz, the question on everyone’s lips was where would the Spaniard go next season.
With Mercedes Team Boss Toto Wolff moving quickly to court Max Verstappen or line up teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli, an option closed for Sainz. After Sergio Perez signed a contract extension with Red Bull it looked like another door had closed and even after a troubled run of form, the Mexican’s place is safe for now.
Perhaps the easiest choice for Sainz to make would be to sign with Audi, but there’s a reason he’s plumped for Williams and why he’s taken so long to decide.
Sauber’s first half of 2024 has been miserable at best and behind the scenes Audi has courted drama with managerial bust-ups and shake-ups. This all came to a head before the Belgian Grand Prix when Audi dismissed Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffmann and instead placed Mattia Binotto in charge of improving Sauber to a point befitting the German automotive giant’s complete takeover in 2026.
Such upheaval 18 months ahead of the Audi project lining up on the F1 grid no doubt was the final nail in the coffin warning Sainz to stay well away.
For the majority of 2024, Williams was the only competitor with Audi to capture Sainz’s services.
Ahead of the May’s Monaco Grand Prix, reports emerged that the Grove-based outfit had entered talks with the Spaniard and ahead of the Candian round of the 2024 season, Williams Team Principal James Vowles made a public declaration it was courting Sainz’s services for next year and beyond.
“Why Williams? There’s a reason why I’m here,” Vowles told Sky Sports F1. “Williams isn’t the same Williams it was three years ago. And by the definition of the fact that we are even talking to Carlos shows you that we’ve changed our approach. We want two world-class drivers to be a part of our stable going forward.”
It appeared to all intents and purposes that Vowles had succeeded in his bid when whispers in the F1 paddock at Barcelona reckoned a deal was imminent.
Enter stage-left, Flavio Briatore…
The enigmatic, perhaps controversial Italian was welcomed back into the ‘Team Enstone’ fold at last month’s Spanish Grand Prix as a special advisor and immediately set about scuppering Williams’ bid to sign Sainz. Briatore’s plan was to dangle the carrot that Alpine would ditch its underpowered Renault engines for a Mercedes PU. However, that was quite the peculiar carrot to dangle given Williams already enjoys a successful integration with Mercedes power.
But Alpine’s situation took a dramatic turn at Spa, with Bruno Famin all but confirming Alpine would ditch Renault power in favour of Mercedes whilst simultaneously revealing he will step down as Team Principal at the end of August to prevent staff from breaking out into mutiny at Viry-Chatillon. Another chess piece on Sainz’s board had fallen.
Realistically, this left him with only Williams to put his faith in and while some may say it is the best of a bad bunch, it is in fact an astute choice by the Spaniard for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, Vowles’ determination to turn the team around is clear for the world to see and he has been busy on a frenetic recruitment drive that has seen the Grive-based workforce swell from approximately 700 staff to over 1000.
Speaking to a select group of media including Motorsport Week last Sunday, Vowles pointed to McLaren for inspiration on how a team can turn itself into a contender with the right process.
“Our journey is different to McLaren in many regards, but has similarities,” he said. “McLaren was about five to eight years for turning it around and I’ve said it here many, many times. What we have is probably a bigger problem than McLaren in many regards. But you already have a complete template for what a team took to get itself back into winning ways.
“If said to you in Bahrain in 2023 and said to you, McLaren’s going to be 1-2 next year, and by the way, the team to beat, you would laugh me out of the room. Sensibly so, and yet they’re there. So it’s an aspiration, and that’s about how I treat them.”
McLaren got to where it is today by putting its faith in the right people, recruiting well, investing in infrastructure and compiling a proficient leadership team. Vowles has Williams on this trajectory and before he got the Sainz deal over the line he rightly “hoped” that putting those building blocks in place would have the desired effect in attracting the three-time GP winner to his team.
“I’m very confident in what we are doing behind the scenes,” Vowles said. “I’m confident in the investments we’re making, I’m confident in the journey that we’re on and there’s nothing that I would have changed along this pathway so far. So, fundamentally, what are we investing in? People. I’ve said this time and time again, this is an order of priority as well to a certain extent. People, culture are the two major items. Process, infrastructure, technology and commercial at the same time. Commercial, because that’s really what is the powerhouse behind it all. But we have investors and investment that is going far beyond at the moment in order to bring ourselves to a sensible place.
“So, what have we done with people? First and foremost, Alex [Albon] re-signed. And Alex knows a good amount about what’s coming for 26 and 27 and it gave him confidence to know that this is the place for him. He had plenty of offers on the table. I hope, but I can’t tell you any more than I hope, we’ll have another driver that is wanting to join this journey as well.”
Sainz is no fool, his wins at Silverstone and Singapore show he has an aptitude within the cockpit of a racing car that makes him one of the top talents in the F1 field. His approach outside the car is just the same and that is why he has deliberated so long on making his decision for next year and beyond. It is also why, without the avenue of a so-called top-team drive next year, he has the wherewithal to apply his experience to a team aiming to charge forward.
“I love Formula 1 and I would rather go down to a midfield team and use my skill, in the peak of my career, to try and help a midfield team to find the right way than taking a year off or being third driver for [a top team], you know,” Sainz said during last Thursday’s Belgian GP press conference. “I’m competitive and I know I can still bring to a midfield team that side of me.”
Williams is that team. Vowles is the right man to mould Sainz into one of its leaders.
Again, speaking to the select gaggle of media inside Williams’ hospitality at Spa last weekend, Vowles spoke about how far he was going to encourage Sainz to sign, of conversations lasting well into the night and how the amount of deliberation Sainz was taking wasn’t something to be worried about but admired.
“It’s interesting conversations he and I have had pretty late into a few nights and we presented from both sides,” Vowles said. “My perspective is this, I know I’m in a Williams shirt, but I believe so much in what we’re doing that’s why I left Mercedes to come here that’s why I’m talking to all of you with the amount of passion I have I believe in everything you’re doing here and I’m in it day to day and I can see the changes day to day.
“If I gave you a handful of individuals from our team and said talk to them about how it was 12 months ago then talk to them about how it is today and what’s going to be there in 12 months, positive stories would just flow out and that’s why I’m positive. With Carlos he can’t see much of it, what he looks at is what you can see externally, where are you, where do you qualify, why do you have a bad race here what’s going on here.
“Here’s what he told me which actually resonated the most, ‘the reason why I’m doing this is when I commit I need to commit with all my heart and all my soul 100% and to do that means I can’t have any doubts and that’s why it’s taking the time’ and that resonated with me.”
Sainz has taken his time and chosen to put his heart and soul in Vowles’ more than capable hands. It’s been a long road to this point and some will still argue that it is simply a choice of convenience for Sainz to stay on the grid, but it is more than that. A level-headed, but hungry driver in the form of Sainz, coupled with Vowles’ dogged determination to make Williams an F1 giant once more could make this a match made in heaven.
