F1 driver transfer news: Carlos Sainz 'extraordinary' transfer announcement claim made by James Vowles

Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen in 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Driver Transfers

F1 team boss casts 'EXTRAORDINARY' transfer announcement claim

Williams have recently announced the signing of Carlos Sainz

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 5 August 2024 17:57 Updated: 18:29

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A Formula 1 team principal has revealed the 'extraordinary' way a recent driver transfer was announced.

The F1 driver market has been strife with activity since the stunning announcement that Lewis Hamilton would be joining Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season.

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This move, which pairs the most successful driver in F1 history with the most successful team on the grid, sparked a flurry of driver transfers, as teams scramble to get the best driver pairing they can heading into a new era of F1.

One driver that was directly impacted by Hamilton's move was Carlos Sainz, who has been displaced at Ferrari.

Carlos Sainz has signed for Williams from next season

James Vowles became Williams team principal in 2023

Sainz's shock Williams transfer

Sainz was courted by a number of teams since he became available back in January, with Red Bull, Mercedes and Aston Martin all believed to be interested in acquiring the three-time grand prix winner's services.

However, in a shock move, Sainz signed with Williams, a team that are trying to claw their way back having been near the back of the grid for much of the last decade.

Sainz will partner Alex Albon in what will be a driver pairing envied by even the top teams on the grid.

Now, Williams team principal James Vowles has been revealing how he managed to claim the coup of Sainz on the F1 Nation podcast, and described the emotion from his team when he announced it to them at their Grove-based factory.

"One of the best ways I can explain this is through the emotional reaction when I announced him in the race bays.

"There’s a little bit on social, I hope there will be anyway, but to set the scene we set up a projector screen with a TV in there, we walked in, Netflix were with me as well. About 600-700 people and I introduced him and said, ‘it’s best you watch the screen.'

"Now, I’ve had the pleasure of winning races and being part of the race bay element, winning a championship and being in a race bay. I promise you the emotional reaction to this was the largest I have ever seen in my Formula 1 career, it was extraordinary, the shouting, screaming.

"Carlos did a piece to camera fundamentally that was maybe about a minute and a half. They missed the first minute, there was just screaming going on up here the whole time and that alone told me what it meant to every one of those individuals in there."