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James Vowles recently explained how his method of luring Carlos Sainz to Williams was similar to dating. The British team recently announced that Sainz would drive for them from 2025.
Before the 2024 F1 season began, Ferrari announced that they would hire Lewis Hamilton as their driver from 2025. The Italian giants will replace Carlos Sainz with the seven-time world champion. This forced the Spaniard to find a new team to continue his career in F1.
Due to his impressive on-track performances in recent times, many teams like Williams, Audi, Alpine, Mercedes, and even Red Bull approached Carlos Sainz. After several months, Sainz finally decided to join Williams after team principal James Vowles lured him.
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Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Vowles explained how his approach to attracting Sainz was similar to how people date. He said that he had his first coffee date with the F1 driver before 2024, then started light texting with him. After Lewis Hamilton's announcement, their conversations got more frequent and intense.
"It's why I described it as dating. So, we had a first coffee, lovely date. Then light texting, as you do, a little bit of flirting, as you do. Then, really, the conversation after Lewis [Ferrari announcement] happened, kicked off more in earnest and became more and more intense month by month," Vowles said.
At one point, Vowles said that he did not care whether Carlos Sainz would join Williams or not. He said he simply enjoyed speaking with the Spaniard.
"So it really 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, whether he was going to be here [at Williams] or not I didn't care," Williams boss added.
James Vowles on how he and Carlos Sainz formed a deeper understanding before the Spaniard signed for Williams
Williams' boss James Vowles also explained how he formed a deeper understanding with Carlos Sainz while he was luring him towards his team. In the same podcast, Vowles explained that he wanted to understand where Sainz was in his career and what he wanted in the future.
The British team's boss added that he wanted to be Sainz's team principal since both he and the F1 driver were extremely performance-oriented.
"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 just really good chats," Vowles said.
"The same sort of continued on across Spa, and we're very similar to each other. And clearly, he's a driver 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 how we both approach it," he added.
As of now Carlos Sainz is racing for Ferrari and stands in fifth place with 162 points in the drivers' championship table after the Belgian GP.
