Williams has secured a huge coup in attaining Carlos Sainz’s coveted services for 2025 – but how did a team that hasn’t been victorious in the last decade manage to entice a multiple-time Formula 1 race victor to resist two huge manufacturers?
September 2023: Sainz has brought a much-awaited end to Red Bull’s unbeaten run with a calculated drive under intense pressure in Singapore to return Ferrari to the top. In doing so, he has pipped his more-fancied team-mate Charles Leclerc, who is Ferrari’s cherished child and seems poised to renew.
However, the expected news that Sainz would remain draped in scarlet red alongside him never arrived. And it won’t. Instead, the sport’s most successful driver in seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and the most successful team in Ferrari will combine together at long last, at Sainz’s expense.
Sainz, who will turn 30 next month, set his sights on securing a seat which would ensure that he could continue spending the prime of his career competing at the front.
But despite having proven that he belongs at the sharp end and beginning the current campaign on stellar form with several podiums and another composed win in Australia, Sainz’s desire soon dissipated.
Red Bull elected to extend Sergio Perez and closed the door on a Sainz return even amid the Mexican’s ongoing recent slump, while Mercedes is all but certain to hedge its bets on teenage prospect Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Sainz, who ruled out a sabbatical, was never in danger of missing out on a place on the grid, but less glamorous options down the pitlane prompted a lengthier consideration.
As soon as his impending Ferrari exit was made public, Sainz was linked with a move to Sauber as it prepares to evolve into Audi, an automotive name with which his father, Carlos Sainz Sr, has an existing connection.
However, it has transpired that even prior to Ferrari’s audacious swoop to sign Hamilton, Williams was working in the background to be in the most well-prepared position possible should Sainz become available.
“The conversation has been many months, it hasn’t been weeks, of which you’ve been privy to some of it, because it’s been a bit more public than I would normally do with a driver discussion, but actually started way back in Abu Dhabi last year, and the message I gave to him and to his family at the time is no different to the message I gave him last weekend in Spa, to be clear, and I believe that’s what’s won it,” Vowles told media including Motorsport Week.
The initial news broke around the Monaco Grand Prix weekend and developments accelerated to the point that an announcement was even touted in Spain in June to coincide with his home Grand Prix.
But Alpine’s reveal that ex-boss Flavio Briatore was returning as an advisor complicated matters as the eccentric Italian pushed hard to obtain Sainz’s signature via the promise that the Enstone-based squad would inherit customer Mercedes engines.
Vowles has conceded Williams was “stung” that weekend thinking a deal was imminent right as it endured an outing where its car was the slowest in the field in Barcelona.
However, Williams remained at the table and the groundwork that Vowles put in back in Abu Dhabi last December paid dividends as Sainz put pen to paper on a contract through 2025, which comprises options to extend.
Vowles had pinpointed Sainz as the name he wanted to spearhead Williams’ revival and the sole time he entertained alternatives was when Alpine looked to have nudged ahead.
But Vowles never relented and that tentative approach at the Yas Marina Circuit instigated regular discussions which even extended to his partner, Rachel, questioning his blossoming relationship with the Spaniard.
On paper, Williams isn’t the best option. Despite its own shortcomings during this season, Alpine remains ahead in the standings and is in line to be on a par with Williams when it comes to using Mercedes engines upon the regulation reset in 2026.
Williams under Vowles shouldn’t be assessed on where it is now, though, but rather what it could become once the potential from the plans being implemented in the background is realised down the line.
Williams’ troubles this season have been well-documented; the team opted to commit to a complete overhaul with its car concept as it strived to make a more versatile car compared to its peakier FW45 predecessor.
However, rushed deadlines contributed to overweight components which have hampered Williams since the season’s start. Rather than being able to build upon a revamped base with additional updates, the car has been on a weight-loss programme.
Alex Albon, who has scored all four of Williams’ points to date, has insisted that a car operating at the 698-kilogram minimum weight limit would have placed it in contention to battle Mercedes at the opener in Bahrain. Meanwhile, Vowles has agreed that the current aerodynamic package is good enough to log regular points without that taxing hindrance to its competitiveness.
“I think there was more we could have achieved if the car was in the weight limit,” he stated. “We were open and honest about this. We’re still overweight today, but there are updates coming. What I can tell you is there’s substantive numbers that should add up to us being back in a position of fighting for points. And it’s achieved through a number of things. There’s aerodynamic updates, a suspension update, and you’re going to see weight coming off the car.”
He added: “The actual aerodynamic performance of the car is in a reasonable place, we’ve just got to shed that weight off it so that we can start fighting up the front.”
Williams is aiming to hit the weight limit later this season and should commence 2025 – the final campaign under the current regulations – in much better shape. But glancing at the current pecking order, that step alone won’t be enough to catapult the British squad much higher than sixth place.
But while he has acknowledged that the team has underperformed in 2024, Vowles isn’t concerned in the slightest and, according to his upcoming team boss, neither is Sainz, who hasn’t been sold unrealistic short-term expectations to guarantee that he signed on the dotted line.
“As strange as this sounds, I’m not worried.” Vowles expressed. “I’m not worried about it because I’ve said from the beginning, I said last year as well, everything we are doing is investing in ‘26 and beyond. And a lot of what we’re doing at the moment is really quite invisible under the surface but it’s changing fundamentally the technologies that are in Williams, the culture that’s in Williams, the people that’s in Williams as well at the same time, the infrastructure that we have available to us.
“I did mention it once or twice last year, but the impact could even be a slight negative as you go forward into 2024 and then you start to get output from then onwards. So, I think there’s no doubt that what I’ve been discussing with Williams is it’s a journey back to competitiveness.
“We’ve started from further back than I would like. We’ve started with perhaps a situation not as strong as I would like as well within our organisation. But what I’m also able to say here is I’m very confident in what we are doing behind the scenes.
“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.
“But what Carlos recognised from us, as I said, and much of it you won’t see and you will never see, I’m afraid, but I did expose it to him, is what we’re changing on the inside.”
Vowles is altering the culture at Williams to move its thinking towards what’s to come like a top team rather than having tunnel vision on the present and getting left upon a rules reset. The ex-Mercedes Strategy Director is using his illustrious experience with the German marque to good use as he revealed that some members of the team have been assigned to work on 2027 now.
“We’re also investing in ‘25,” he added. “So our car is not a ‘24 car in the wind tunnel. It’s been 25 for quite a few months. And that won’t surprise you. I did exactly the same thing last year where we’re trying to get ahead of the curve. And the reason why we’re doing this is not because I believe in ‘25, but I want to get the ‘26 car in the tunnel as soon as possible, but have a sensible ‘25, ‘26 car. That’s fundamentally what we’re doing.
“Everything we’re doing is basically forward borrowing against getting everything as quickly as possible into ‘26. Within our team, we’ve separated the team out now. With the additional resource, we have team members focused on ‘24, ‘25, ‘26, and a little bit of ‘27 as well at the same time. And that’s a change for Williams. We’re more used to working one year in advance, or even on the current year.
“As you can imagine, when you do that within an organisation, it takes time to adapt and grow to it. Mercedes do it. I guarantee you Red Bull do it. It’s just for us. That’s a large department we’re working out here. With all that in mind, I’m privileged enough to see the numbers for ‘26 and what we’re doing, the development direction for ‘26, the process growth for ‘26, the infrastructure changes happening, and other bits that are coming.”
However, to supplement those aspirations requires an expansion to a workforce that can equal that among the leading quartet (Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull).
Under Dorilton Capital’s ownership, Williams is investing the essential amounts to renovate the facilities that were outdated.
But with Vowles at the helm, a man who has extensive experience in a multi-title-winning operation at Mercedes, Williams is also expending vast resources on individuals.
Vowles’ internal expansion began over 12 months ago with Pat Fry’s appointment as Chief Technical Officer from Alpine. To complement the veteran F1 engineer, who has considerable experience comprising stints with both McLaren and Ferrari, Williams made an announcement that 26 senior hires have arrived from rival teams.
That is not the end, either. Since then, more followed, prompting Williams to bring a “labouring machine trackside” to Silverstone when it ran a colour scheme at its home race which featured the names of all the individuals affiliated with the Williams team.
“I didn’t know where to draw the cutoff because if I’d done that a week later, it would have been to 30s already with a number of good individuals,” Vowles said. “We had to choose a point in time where we thought it was sensible to discuss that.”
Vowles has also disclosed that Williams’ expansion goes past headline names as almost 250 people have been recruited since he was appointed to the helm in early 2023.
“We’ve hired close to 250 across the last 17 months,” the Briton, 45, revealed. “That is that those are key senior hires from other F1 teams that will make a direct impact from the moment they join. And that’s quite an important differential. But that’s the people of investment that we’re going down at the moment. Between them, they had over 100 years [of] experience in the sport.
Vowles has teased that his augmentation will continue and he is certain that the overriding desire to come on board is a testament to how serious Williams now is.
“That’s not the end of our journey by any stretch of the imagination,” he underlined. “That’s the growth we’re on. Now, you don’t do that by coincidence. You do that because people believe in what you’re doing. People are coming from, as I said, all the top teams. It’s not really one place that we’re not getting good impact in. And people are doing it because they see that Williams isn’t there to make up the numbers anymore. It’s an investment in properly bringing this team back to the front.”
The approach to overhauling the mindset within Williams isn’t exclusive to the racing divisions in the team, either. Vowles has overseen a growth to the commercial department that stands to rival Mercedes as he endeavours to transcend Williams back into the powerhouse it was in its pomp.
Vowles has proclaimed that Williams is bidding to replicate McLaren’s model. And with good reason, too. The Woking-based squad endured a similar, albeit not as bad, nadir as it claimed a single win between the last round in 2012 – the last season a Williams driver stood on the top step – and the current term. However, Andrea Stella has masterminded a turnaround which has seen McLaren emerge from the doldrums of struggling to score points in the nascent stages last year to now having the quickest package and being in a championship duel.
Stella has stated how empowering people has been a core architect in McLaren’s newfound success in recent times, something which bodes well for Williams.
Sainz, who was with McLaren prior to his Ferrari move, spoke about his admiration at what has transpired at his previous team.
Although Williams was not an envisaged move in his career, he will be hoping that it will represent moving one step backwards to take several forward in the coming seasons.
There are no guarantees in F1. The sport can throw up unexpected trials and tribulations which disrupt even the most established entities at certain moments. However, Williams is putting in the work to provide substance to Vowles’ assertion that the side will sustain success again under his tenure.
Vowles has expressed that signing Sainz is a “statement of intent” in relation to his aspirations, while he also contends that it constitutes a “monumental” moment that he considered the Williams rebuild a more enticing prospect than what Audi presented.
Audi was prepared to move heaven and earth to obtain Sainz to head its budding venture, Vowles has indicated, with even erstwhile Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto, who brought the Madrid-born driver to Maranello and had been in recent contact with him, not enough.
Unlike Audi, who has ousted ex-CEO Andreas Seidl and Chief Representative Oliver Hoffmann to hire Binotto as Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer, and Alpine, which has continued to adopt a revolving door at management level with Bruno Famin the latest to step down, Williams has in place a stable leadership with a clear and relatable plan on how it wants to ascend to the front.
Despite various reports hinting at potential deadlines, Vowles was prepared to wait and not pressure Sainz into a choice, citing that the two shared the same values in wanting to form a partnership that would be all in rather than an underbaked collaboration.
“Here’s what he told me which 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’, “he recalled.
The developments elsewhere made Sainz deliberate, but Williams never exited contention and persistence was rewarded.
For Williams, Sainz will be an unquestionable accelerator to its progress. Vowles has heralded him as being among the four best drivers in F1 and “at times, the number two”.
Sainz doesn’t have the innate talent that Leclerc possesses, but he has not disgraced himself up against a driver who is considered an F1 champion in waiting should Ferrari deliver him an adequate car.
The pace margin between them has been minimal across the last three seasons to the point where the two have been the closest matched team-mates on the entire roster.
Sainz being quick is well-established, but above all, he is a well-rounded package, something he’s recognised as being a valuable asset to a rebuilding operation.
The Spaniard has garnered a reputation within the paddock as an engineer’s dream, with his astute attention to detail and striving to extract the last ounce of performance two qualities that Vowles has since highlighted.
“My view of things is that competitors are getting closer and closer,” he assessed. “So, the marginal difference that a driver can make, and I don’t just mean in performance terms, look at Carlos, look at every team he has been in, they have improved significantly.
“What I’ve realised with him is that he is a performance machine. He absolutely will do everything it takes within his power to not transform just himself, but the team around him as well at the same time. And that’s powerful. That’s worth more than what he can drive the car at. That’s worth that you move the team forward by the same amount.”
Williams Chief Engineer Dave Robson has proclaimed that the team is anticipating Sainz to be “demanding” upon his arrival as he advises the team on the areas where there are clear deficiencies compared to what he has been accustomed to at Ferrari.
But that is something Vowles is relishing as Sainz comes in alongside Alex Albon to create Williams’ strongest line-up since Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, who was in the running to return to the squad, in 2017.
Vowles has underlined that Williams is no longer around to “make up the numbers” and there is no bigger indicator of that than the squad’s impending driver combination.
There can be no doubt that Sainz, with 23 F1 podium finishes to his name, will raise Williams’ ceiling against its midfield rivals in the short term. The Spaniard has proven with his most recent victories in Singapore and Australia that he can capitalise on opportunities, which is something that Albon, who has been a driver reborn since his Red Bull stint, showed can also be a vital trait when scrapping over the most minor point scores with a car across the lower reaches.
Their partnership will be an intriguing one to chart as the two battle it out to become the established name within the team while seeking to work together simultaneously to elevate Williams back to its former glory.
Sainz will tread down a prestigious path in becoming the fourth different driver in the sport to have represented Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. Time will tell whether he can help inspire an upturn in the team’s fortunes to replicate what Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell achieved in accomplishing success.
