{"id":25067,"date":"2024-10-04T07:38:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T11:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=25067"},"modified":"2024-10-04T08:18:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T12:18:34","slug":"williams-have-best-driver-line-up-for-2025-says-vowles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/04\/williams-have-best-driver-line-up-for-2025-says-vowles\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams have best driver line-up for 2025, says Vowles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Williams became one of many teams to change their 2025 line-up after agreeing to a multi-year deal with Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard&#8217;s arrival is further proof of the ambition at Williams to become front-runners. According to team principal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/03\/vowles-mercedes-have-done-exceptional-job-with-2026-engine\/\" target=\"_self\">James Vowles<\/a>, the Albon-Sainz combination is the strongest in Formula 1.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Sainz and Albon are the best duo in F1, argues James Vowles<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/26\/james-vowles-sainz-contract-talks-shockingly-close-to-dating\/\" target=\"_self\">The acquisition of Carlos Sainz<\/a> is a huge milestone for Williams. It represents their most high-profile signing since Felipa Massa in 2014, serving as evidence of the growing confidence in the Grove-based team.<\/p>\n<p>James Vowles has not been afraid to bold statements about his team&#8217;s ambitions &#8211; even at the expense of rising expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Williams will face a new level of scrutiny in 2026, with the new regulations representing a key measuring stick for their progress.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"wZQ8Pu2bTW906ipBBK1raA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2168461192\" 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:'wZQ8Pu2bTW906ipBBK1raA',sig:'H-dMJ_bdLynCOjKF8WN4hV8N1Xb6HmSzHJHfQc85vBo=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2168461192',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Williams see Sainz as a key piece of the puzzle<\/h4>\n<p>As the team looks to progress, Williams can count on a very strong driver line-up.<\/p>\n<p>However, Vowles is especially enthusiastic about his drivers &#8211; making the case that Sainz completes the best line-up in F1:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;That&#8217;s my opinion of it. I&#8217;ll explain some of the reasons behind it.,&#8221; he said on Beyond The Grid Podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;A &#8211; they&#8217;re both performing at a very high level. <\/em><em>I mean, Carlos has driven against all the drivers you just discussed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;He drove against Lando, was successful against Charles &#8211; up and down &#8211; but he&#8217;s there or there abouts. There&#8217;s hardly anything between those two drivers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Against Max, in that first year at Toro Rosso, was exceptional against him&#8230; But it&#8217;s not just that I&#8217;m basing it on. It&#8217;s not in the car, it&#8217;s [also] out of the car.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In the short space of time I&#8217;ve gotten to know him properly, he drives the team forward. He wants to spend every minute of his time to make this team more and more successful&#8230; Alex is built the same way.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Of course, the consensus in the paddock will not align with Vowles&#8217; perspective. The majority of observers would argue that Ferrari &#8211; with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/09\/07\/f1-news-charles-leclerc-reveals-le-mans-aspirations\/\" target=\"_self\">Leclerc<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/31\/lewis-hamilton-immensely-frustrated-i-couldve-been-pole\/\" target=\"_self\">Hamilton<\/a> &#8211; boast the strongest line-up for 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it is understandable for a team principal to sing the praises of their drivers.<\/p>\n<p>If Williams can become more competitive, the abilities of their duo (much like is happening at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/02\/mclaren-prepare-critical-upgrades-for-final-phase-of-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a>) will become far clearer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Williams became one of many teams to change their 2025 line-up after agreeing to a multi-year deal with Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard&#8217;s arrival is further proof of the ambition at Williams to become front-runners. According to team principal James Vowles, the Albon-Sainz combination is the strongest in Formula 1. Sainz and Albon are the best [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":25069,"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":[4,3],"tags":[2220,1295,343,68,465,915,94],"class_list":["post-25067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-alex-albon","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-james-vowles","tag-williams"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25067","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=25067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}