Carlos Sainz’s decision to reject Audi labelled “a vote of no confidence”

Carlos Sainz’s decision to overlook Audi and join Williams for the 2025 F1 season has been labelled as a “vote of no confidence” in the German outfit’s project.

Sainz had a choice between Williams, Audi and Alpine for next year - ultimately deciding for the Grove outfit.

It was a big decision for Sainz given Audi and Alpine’s works status - and the resources they have relative to Williams.

However, under James Vowles’ leadership, Williams appear to be moving in the right direction.

There’s chaos at Alpine with their yearly management changes, on top of the likely switch to becoming a customer team.

With Audi, they’ve recently made major changes at management level, while Sauber’s on-track performance has been abysmal in 2024.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Craig Slater believes it’s indicative of the “turmoil” at Audi.

“I think is was a vote of no confidence for Sauber/Audi, chiefly when you think about the family connection with Sainz and Carlos Sainz Senior winning Dakar with Audi and the Volkswagen Group,” he said.

“For him to walk away from that when it seemed the most obvious place for him to go is a clear sign that things are not right there.

“I spoke to someone who has a good window on what the goings on are like currently at that team.

“He’s not saying anything which isn’t obvious, but he described it to me as a mess and observed that this is a team that can’t even put a wheel on a car properly at the moment. So the turmoil at the top is reflective of things going badly wrong at the moment.”

Slater believes the reports of turmoil would have been a “turn-off” for Sainz, particularly given how much Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have struggled this year.

“They, also expressed to me the notion that they have underestimated Audi, and this isn’t the first time we’ve maybe heard about a manufacturer doing this, how difficult it is to get things right in Formula One in the time of timescale they’re working with,” he explained.

“So I think all of that has been a turn-off for Sainz. I think he is worried if he goes there, he’s in the kind of situation that Bottas and Zhou are in, not much better next year, and who is to say what happens the year after that as well.

“I think in a way that he has chosen the best option available to him. And yes, I think someone as logical and as practical and pragmatic as Sainz and it’s a shame that he’s kind of in this position, I can’t quite understand that.

“But all his driver moves have made sense at the time, it’s just they’ve all not worked out correctly. I think he will look James Vowles in the eye and be convinced by him.

“He’s someone who knows what he is doing and what he is doing with Williams make sense, even if there are some sacrifices along the way and that is not clear at those other teams.”