{"id":23459,"date":"2024-08-26T13:49:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T17:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=23459"},"modified":"2024-08-26T13:50:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T17:50:09","slug":"james-vowles-sainz-contract-talks-shockingly-close-to-dating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/26\/james-vowles-sainz-contract-talks-shockingly-close-to-dating\/","title":{"rendered":"James Vowles: Sainz contract talks &#8220;shockingly close to dating&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>James Vowles has been active in the driver market for most of 2024. The Williams team principal spent months working to strengthen his driver line-up, eventually convincing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/26\/carlos-sainz-warns-mclaren-are-the-only-certainty-at-the-front\/\" target=\"_self\">Carlos Sainz<\/a> to join the team. Sainz is a landmark signing for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/26\/liam-lawson-this-obstacle-could-prevent-a-williams-move\/\" target=\"_self\">Williams<\/a>, whose signature was only secured after months of negotiations &#8211; as James Vowles explains.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, the expectation across the paddock was that Sainz would sign a deal with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/23\/valtteri-bottas-provides-update-on-audi-contract-talks\/\" target=\"_self\">Audi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The German manufacturer&#8217;s interest in signing him was common knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Spaniard was clearly hesitant to join Audi&#8217;s project.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps due to the recent investment at Williams, or their willingness to offer Sainz more contract flexibility, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/26\/fred-vasseur-ferrari-are-fighting-for-the-championship\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari<\/a> driver eventually accepted the offer made by James Vowles.<\/p>\n<h3>Vowles explains Carlos Sainz negotiations<\/h3>\n<p>Speaking to the media last weekend, Vowles discussed the process of securing Sainz&#8217;s signature:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;So, it was shockingly close to dating. That&#8217;s what it was like getting Carlos across the line,&#8221;<\/em> he told DAZN.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It started with light text messages, and it ended with me going to his hotel room. That&#8217;s really what happened.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"hr6wpM_tQ916M2mFpgvkQA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2168151866\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hr6wpM_tQ916M2mFpgvkQA',sig:'8tdsxO19kPLvvUoTJB792k5RCRRXWQRnNaSqdBemFRo=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2168151866',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The way, though, of getting him across the line was &#8211; from the beginning to now &#8211; the same message.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;All the good things and all the bad things. When you do it over one week, it doesn&#8217;t make a difference.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But when you do it for six months, and he can see everything coming to fruition, then it makes a difference&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I never changed my approach, just being honest about him with the good and the bad.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Pressure increases for Williams<\/h3>\n<p>Over the last three days, reports have only intensified surrounding the Williams camp.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/24\/logan-sargeant-on-thin-ice-as-williams-consider-mid-season-swap\/\" target=\"_self\">Logan Sargeant<\/a> could be replaced before the Italian GP, such is the extent of James Vowles&#8217; frustration with his performances.<\/p>\n<p>Should either <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/25\/mick-schumacher-to-replace-sargeant-at-williams\/\" target=\"_self\">Schumacher<\/a> or Lawson replace Sargeant, it would be another example of James Vowles&#8217; ruthlessness.<\/p>\n<p>However, this cutthroat attitude must lead to results.<\/p>\n<p>The former Mercedes engineer is well aware of this, and Carlos Sainz&#8217;s arrival at Grove is set to heighten expectations.<\/p>\n<p>For all the optimism surrounding Williams in recent years, on-track progress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Vowles has been active in the driver market for most of 2024. The Williams team principal spent months working to strengthen his driver line-up, eventually convincing Carlos Sainz to join the team. Sainz is a landmark signing for Williams, whose signature was only secured after months of negotiations &#8211; as James Vowles explains. Initially, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":23460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,3],"tags":[2220,343,68,465,915],"class_list":["post-23459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-james-vowles"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}