Vowles confident in deal with Sainz: 'Opportunity is in our favour'

The team boss, in a press briefing with GPblog and others, was first asked about which drivers are still an option for him for next year. '  I'm open-minded, but I want excellence within the team,'' Vowles told us. ''I want race-winning performance within the team. Iwant individuals that are leaders. In other words, they've established and they've been making their way here. So out of all those, the top of the list."

Vowles has confidence in Williams and in Sainz's arrival

'' I've said it from the start, and I'll maintain it here now as well, is Carlos. He's not listening to this, I don't think, anyway. But he is, in adversity last year, won a race, and he did it in a bloody intelligent way, against some of the best individuals, that includes Lando [Norris] and Charles [Leclerc], he beats them in the circumstance. I know he had a pretty poor qualifying yesterday, but look at Q1 and Q2, he's there or thereabouts. He brings excellence along with him, and I've said it once and I'll keep saying it, that is where my heart is set, and let's see if the journeys collide.''

The Williams team boss has a lot of confidence in his own team. ''It's interesting conversations he and I have had pretty late into a few nights. We present it from both sides. My perspective is this, I know I wear 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 we are 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, talk to them about how it is today, and what's going to be there in 12 months, the positive stories will just flow out. And that's why I'm positive towards it. With Carlos, he can't see much of that. What he looks at is what you can see externally. ‘Where are you? Where do you qualify? Why did you have a bad race here? What's going on here?’ ''

How high does Vowles rate the chances of Sainz coming to Williams in the upcoming F1 season? ''More than 50%, how's that? How confident am I? I think the odds are in our favour. But I've been stung by this already once this year, so let's see. I think the odds are in our favour,'' said Vowles.

This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.