James Vowles outlines what he ‘connected a lot’ on with Carlos Sainz

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Williams will be looking forward to when Carlos Sainz joins them in 2025 and can offer some stability to their F1 driver lineup.

Team principal James Vowles expained how it was difficult to sign Sainz when he became a free agent earlier in the year, owing to him being one the only driver to topple the dominance of Max Verstappen and Red Bull last year.

Carlos Sainz also impressed when he came back from appendicitis earlier in the season and won the Australian GP, while also scoring more points than teammate Charles Leclerc in the first few rounds of the year.

Vowles intially contacted Sainz at the Abu Dhabi GP last year about a drive, then things developed when his options started to narrow at the sharp end of the grid and it became clear neither Mercedes or Ferrari would take him.

Discussing what impressed him the most about Sainz on the Fast and Curious podcast, Vowles explained how the Spaniard is a ‘performance machine’ both on and off the track.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz’s life outside F1 from full name, girlfriend and height

James Vowles impressed by ‘performance machine’ Carlos Sainz

The Spaniard will partner Alex Albon in 2025 in whta is expected to be a formidable duo, given the Thai driver has scored the bulk of their 16 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Sainz is also expected to bring in a lot of sponsorship, including Spanish bank Santander that recently ended its sponsorship deal with Ferrari.

Vowles believes his wealth of experience will also be key for Williams as they attempt to move further up the grid in the next few years.

“Carlos drives quickly. Everyone knows that about him, but probably the bit that isn’t as apparent is how hard he works underneath to make the team structured correctly, how to deliver every millisecond of performance, and that’s what he is,” said Vowles.

“His own words, not mine, he’s his performance machine. He just wants everything to be performing at the highest level and moving on day-by-day. That continuous change, that continuous improvement is in my culture as well, and we connected a lot on that.”

Williams replacing Logan Sargeant with Franco Colapinto paying off

Vowles was forced to make a change midway through the season with Logan Sargeant, after the American consistently underperformed across 2024.

A firery crash during practice for the Dutch GP that warrented a chassis change proved to be the final straw, as Vowles elected to replace him for the following round at Monza with Argentine Franco Colapinto.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes relationship

The move has been successful so far, with Colapinto scoring more than points in two races than Sargeant managed in 32 races with his eighth place in Azerbaijan.

Colapinto is not expected to be on the grid next year due to funding issues, despite impressing the bosses at Sauber for a potential seat alongside Nico Hulkenberg.