James Vowles isn't ready to declare Ferrari's decision to replace Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton a mistake — but he's happy to have benefited from it anyway.
The Williams team boss secured the services of Sainz, 30, after Ferrari made headlines by signing seven-time world champion Hamilton for 2025.
El Mundo Deportivo suggested to Vowles that if Hamilton's early struggles in red continue, Ferrari's move might have been a "good mistake" — at least from Williams' perspective.
"Exactly," Vowles agreed.
But when pressed on whether Ferrari may already be regretting their choice, the Williams boss remained diplomatic.
"I can't really tell you that or not," Vowles said. "I mean, they had their reasons for making their decisions.
"Lewis is still a seven time world champion. He still brings incredible knowledge.
And as much as everyone talks about Lewis, he has pushed Charles at times. Ferrari did what they had to do for themselves and created an opportunity for me to be able to work with Carlos."
So far, the Sainz-Williams pairing has seen mixed results. The Spaniard has struggled to adapt to the car and the team, and has not shied away from challenging strategic decisions.
At Imola, Sainz admitted he nearly overruled a pit call. "I was close to not coming in," he told DAZN. "Because it seemed too early in the race, and that lap looked like we had opportunities to maybe overtake someone.
"I'm a team man. I follow orders. If the team has asked me to stop, I have to obey.
But I had the feeling that it wasn't the right thing to do, and that turned out to be the case."
Sainz has also voiced concerns about Williams' strategic shift — deciding to halt development of the 2025 car in order to focus entirely on the all-new 2026 regulations.
"It could be that we'll add new parts to the car again after the summer break," Vowles told Auto Motor und Sport. "But they won't be tested in the wind tunnel. We need the permitted test runs for 2026."
Despite that, Vowles concedes that a championship-winning car is not on the immediate horizon.
"We have too many things that aren't in place to be able to build a winning car for 2026," he admitted. "Just too many.
"Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari have much better structured systems than we do right now, but we're on track to catch up. But they won't be online by 2026, maybe not even by 2027. So, 2028 is the first time I see those systems being fully operational."
