Williams has made changes to Carlos Sainz’s car to give him further support – James Vowles addresses radio outbursts from Alexander Albon
James Vowles has never been one to sugarcoat things. He always speaks openly about his team’s weaknesses, as he did in an interview with Sky Sports. In it, the Williams team boss discusses the changes being made to Carlos Sainz’s car to improve his comfort, as well as the operational improvements the entire team will focus on for the rest of the season.
The former Mercedes strategist also gave his own analysis of Sainz’s performance so far this season: “I think in the first seven races there were just individual elements. The first time together on a street circuit – that was a lesson. The first time with the high-downforce rear wing – another lesson. The first time with the low-downforce wing – another lesson.“
”And now we’ve got through that phase. He’s now in a position where he can get into the weekend very quickly,“ says Vowles. ”You saw it again today [in the first practice session], where there were only milliseconds between the two. So I think we’re through this learning phase.“
”When I look at Montreal – without sugarcoating it too much – we shot ourselves in the foot,“ says the team boss. ”Our car broke down, which caused a red flag. And Carlos was on a very fast lap. After that, he was held up by Hadjar.”
“So we couldn’t really see what he could have achieved – apart from the fact that he fought his way back to a point in the last race. But you’ll see in the coming races that Carlos will really take off.”
“Many small details” hinder Sainz
When asked if there was a “deeper issue” that the Spaniard needed to work on, Vowles quickly dismissed the idea: “No, simply because unfortunately it’s never just one thing. I wish it were, but it’s a lot of small details.”
“For example, he has a new seat here that positions him a little better visually and in terms of comfort – it’s actually an advantage in terms of weight distribution too.”
“We started a different simulation program to prepare for this race, which has put him in a better starting position. He now has a better understanding of how our systems and structures work,” said Vowles.
“We played tennis together for a long time on Wednesday evening – maybe that helped him too. But basically, it’s never just one thing. He’s incredibly fast in the car. It’s just a matter of approaching the weekend cleanly from the start.“
”I mean, it’s hard to call it bad luck because we messed it up ourselves – but ultimately it’s just about getting through qualifying and the race cleanly, then he delivers,” he emphasizes.
What’s going on with Albon on the radio
Later, the conversation turns to Alexander Albon after he expressed his frustration over the radio during the Canadian Grand Prix. Improvements are in the works, Vowles assures us: “If you turn off all the other radio channels and leave only Alex’s open, you might as well go get a coffee and come back later,” he said. “He’s just not getting much communication.”
“What’s really interesting is that there’s a lot going on in the background, like ‘Alex just needs to know this or that’ – but the information itself… I spoke to Alex after the race, and if he’d just been told, ‘The hard tire looks really good, hardly any degradation, we’ll probably run it until the end,’ he would have understood what we were getting at. But that information just didn’t get through.“
”And again, it’s never just one thing,“ the Brit emphasizes. ”You have to calm all the structures down so that the driver out there on his own gets the right information.”
“My promise to everyone is: it’s on both sides. I wouldn’t say it’s just Alex. Carlos is perhaps better at controlling his frustration. But we can all function much better as a unit – and that’s exactly what this team needs to do for the remaining 13 races.”
