Williams ‘getting more than it paid for’ from Carlos Sainz - James Vowles

Williams team principal James Vowles already feels vindicated by his decision to hire Carlos Sainz, saying the team is getting more bang for its buck.

Williams scooped up four-time grand prix winner Sainz after he was replaced by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari and paired him alongside another proven quantity in Alex Albon in 2025.

Although the Spaniard has scored just one point so far, after three drivers who finished ahead of him were disqualified in China, Vowles is nonetheless impressed with how he is acclimatising himself to the FW47 after four years at Ferrari.

The British engineer-turned-manager also praised Sainz for his work ethic, highlighting how he spends hours working with various departments at Grove to extract the maximum performance out of the car.

“I think we’re getting more than I paid for [from Sainz],” said Vowles. “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.

“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.”

Vowles on Williams' excellent start to 2025

Williams has already outscored its 2024 points tally in the opening three races of the new season, primarily due to Albon’s brilliant run of form in Australia, China and Japan.

Heading into this weekend’s Bahrain GP, Williams sits a strong sixth in the teams’ standings, four points clear of Haas.

Vowles said Williams’ results in the early part of the season are even more impressive considering that the team’s primary focus has been on building a strong contender for the 2026 rules overhaul - and not on the successor to last year’s FW46.

“[I’m] really pleased, because this is a really competitive grid now,” he said. “Gone are the days where there’s large gaps – we’re down into milliseconds.

“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.”

Vowles expects Williams to become an even more formidable contender in F1 once Sainz is able to get the best out of its 2025 car.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Also read: Carlos Sainz blasts critics who “don't understand the sport very well”