Vowles feels Williams getting ‘more than I paid for’ from Sainz as he cites where he’s been ‘very impressed’

Williams chief James Vowles feels that he and the team are getting “more than I paid for” from Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard leaving his new boss “very impressed” by how he has worked with the whole squad to find more pace.

After Sainz ended up on the driver market for 2025 following Ferrari’s signing of Lewis Hamilton, Vowles made no secret of his desire to sign the four-time race winner – a wish that subsequently came true when a multi-year deal was agreed between the two parties.

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While Sainz is continuing to adjust to his new car since arriving at the squad, Vowles believes that his decision to recruit Sainz is already paying dividends and has backed the 30-year-old to adapt to the FW47 in the near future.

“I think we’re getting more than I paid for [from Sainz],” Vowles explained during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. “The reason why I say that is because there’s two different ways to assess performance – number one is obviously what you see in the car, driving around.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - APRIL 11: Carlos Sainz of Spain and Williams prepares to drive in the garage — Sainz has left Vowles «very impressed» with the work he is putting in to finding extra pace at Williams

“In that regard he’s making steps forward; I’m very comfortable that he will be on the pace shortly, but it takes time to acclimatise – we are quite a different car to the Ferrari.

“But the second element is where I’ve been very impressed; what he’s doing with working with our aerodynamicist team, with our race engineering team, with pretty much everyone throughout our organisation on finding those last milliseconds – that’s the reason why I wanted him as part of this team, and he’s delivering absolutely above my expectations.”

Williams have enjoyed a solid start to the campaign, with the Grove-based outfit currently sitting in P5 of the Teams’ standings after scoring points at all three of the opening rounds. This has seen Alex Albon score a top-10 result in each weekend, while Sainz also added to the tally in China.

In terms of how satisfied he is with the team’s early performance, Vowles sounded a positive note whilst also suggesting that the squad will become even stronger when Sainz has fully acclimatised to the FW47.

Carlos Sainz ‘delivering above my expectations’ – Vowles

“[I’m] really pleased [with our start to the season], because this is a really competitive grid now,” Vowles acknowledged. “Gone are the days where there’s large gaps – we’re down into milliseconds.

“And what I’m really pleased about is that our focus has been on 2026; I’ve been very clear on that, but we’ve still been able to produce a car that’s moved us up to the top end of the midfield and in contention for fighting for points every weekend, which is what our target was going into it.

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“There’s some elements though [where] we have work to do to help Carlos get comfortable in the car, because I think then once you have both of them there we’ll be a force to be reckoned with, really, against the midfield fight.

“But otherwise I’m happy that we’ve got most of what we could get out of the beginning of the season. I think there’s some points here and there that could have been picked up.”