Williams staff ‘screamed’ after Sainz confirmed

In brief

Williams staff ‘screamed with joy’ after Sainz announcement

Upon revealing to his factory staff that Carlos Sainz Jnr had signed to race with them in 2025, James Vowles said the announcement prompted the biggest visceral reaction he had ever seen in his time in Formula 1.

“We set up a sort of projector screen with a TV in there,” Vowles told the F1 Nation podcast. “I walked in – Netflix with me as well. There was about 600 to 700 people – because of shift patterns, you don’t get all one thousand in at the same time – and introduced him.

“Now, I’ve had the pleasure of winning races and being in part of the race bay element – winning a championship and being in the race bay. I promise you, the emotional reaction to this was the largest I’ve ever seen in my Formula 1 career. It was extraordinary. The shouting, screaming… Carlos did a piece to camera fundamentally that was about maybe a minute and a half – they missed the first minute. There was just screaming ongoing in that period of time. That alone told me what it meant to every one of those individuals in there.”

Vasseur not keen on muting radios

Despite concerns that drivers face too much scrutiny for what they say over team radio these days, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says that it would not be best for the sport if limitations were placed on team radio clips during broadcasts.

“We have also to keep in mind that we are the only sport in the world where the guys are speaking on the radio during the effort or the race,” Vasseur said.

“I’m not sure that if you put a microphone on a football player, it would be much better. Even on the referee sometimes. It means that we have also to calm down with this. Or we have to switch off the microphone, but I’m not sure that it will be a step forward for the show.”

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