Vowles describes 'emotional reaction' from Williams team to Sainz signing as 'largest I've ever seen'

James Vowles has recalled the “extraordinary” reaction of the Williams team to the news that Carlos Sainz would be joining them in 2025, with staff members “shouting and screaming” with excitement over the Spaniard’s signing.

After months of speculation over his future, Sainz’s next destination finally became clear one day after the Belgian Grand Prix when it was confirmed that he had agreed a multi-year deal to race for Williams from next season.

READ MORE: ‘I’m really excited by what we have coming’ – Vowles on signing Sainz, re-shaping his technical team, and his long-term plans for Williams

Vowles was keen to share the big news with the team after Sainz’s contract had been signed and, in a chat with the F1 Nation podcast, the Team Principal explained how he decided to go about this.

“One of the best ways I can explain this is through the emotional reaction when I announced [to the team that Sainz had signed],” said Vowles. “To set the scene, we set up a projector screen with a TV in there, and I walked in, Netflix were with me as well. About 600 to 700 people [were there] – because of shift patterns you don’t get all 1,000 in there at the same time.”

Vowles then suggested to those gathered that they watch the screen and, upon seeing Sainz make his announcement, there was a reaction that left the former Mercedes Motorsport Strategy Director stunned.

“I have had the pleasure of winning races and being part of the race bay element, winning a championship and being in the race bay. I promise you, the emotional reaction to this was the largest I’ve ever seen in my Formula 1 career,” Vowles explained.

“It was extraordinary – the shouting, screaming. Carlos did a piece to camera that was fundamentally maybe a minute and a half – they missed the first minute, there was just screaming ongoing in that period of time, and that alone told me what it meant to every one of those individuals in there.

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“And then what I’ve done after that is just follow it up by just walking around really and asking people what it means. The answer is what I hoped it would be, which is [that] it’s a statement of intent.

“It’s a very clear statement of intent; there’s no doubt now that we are investing at the right level, that we have in my opinion one of – if not the best – driver line-ups on the grid, as a combination between the two [Sainz and Alex Albon]. There’s no politics, they’re both just performance machines.”

Another factor that Vowles believes was influential in the Williams squad’s response to Sainz joining was that he believes the team themselves will now have to improve their own performance in order to match that of the 29-year-old.

“Here's the second thing that it really meant to the team – this for me is the more important one unbelievably,” Vowles continued. “Carlos is quick, but he’s a performance machine, and what I mean by that is he wants thousands of details to be at the right level for him to perform and give everything back to the team.

“He wants the team to improve and be better. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that every team he’s been in has improved in his tenure there. I can see why after many, many months of talking to him.

READ MORE: Williams explain how ‘demanding’ and ‘daunting’ Sainz will help ‘shake us up’ as a team

“And what the factory came to the conclusion of – and it’s exactly the right conclusion – is this means we’ve got to step up our game as well. This means that the fact that sometimes we’ve ended up with a floor, that’s not good enough – it needs three floors delivered at the right standard at the right time.

“We need to bring everything in advance, the performance has to be matching the driver line-up that we have today. The world knows that, I know that, but you’d be surprised at what the resonance of that message means.”