Vowles says the process of signing Sainz was 'like dating'
F1 News
One of the biggest rumours finally became official after the Belgian Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz put pen to paper and signed a 'multi-year' deal with Williams to finalise his place on the grid for 2025 after many rumours said he would join the British team. Team principal James Vowles how the long-winded process was almost like dating, which allowed his team to sign the biggest free agent on the driver market.
Contract talks became "more intense" as time went on
Of course, Carlos Sainz's future in F1 was thrown into doubt after Ferrari made one of the biggest driver transfers in history, bringing in Lewis Hamilton to partner Charles Leclerc for the 2025 season. That meant the Spaniard was to lose his seat with the Scuderia and was left to find other options if he wanted to compete in the premier class of motorsport.
Discussions were had with Audi originally, and that looked to be the best option for Sainz, but those talks went cold, and Williams were able to come in and interest the 29-year-old, who was very impressed with Vowles himself and the project he is overseeing with Williams. But those talks between Sainz and Williams had been ongoing for many more months, which Vowles explained on the F1 Nation Podcast.
"I described it as dating," laughed the Williams team boss, explaining what the early stages of conversations were like with the Ferrari driver. "So we had our first coffee, a lovely date. Then light texting, as you do, then a little bit of flirting, as you do! Then, the conversation, after Lewis happened, kicked off more in earnest and became more and more intense, month by month. It went from the point of a few phone calls and a few texts to the last few weeks, we spent some really good evenings together.
Vowles continued by saying how insightful the conversations were between the team principal and driver: "Whether he was going to be here or not, I didn't care. It was having those opportunities in the evenings. One of those was in Austria, and it was just understanding what he's about, what he stands for, who he is, where he is in his career, where he wants to be, and it's just a couple of hours of really good chats. Those conservations continued across Spa too."
"We're very similar to each other. Clearly, he's a driver, and I'm here to be a team principal, but my point is that performance is the root of what we both know as a language, and it resonated with how we both approached it," concluded the Brit.