James Vowles details how Williams maintains Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon's trust

James Vowles says transparency and driver involvement are central to maintaining Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon’s trust during Williams’ rebuilding phase

Williams team principal James Vowles has revealed that absolute transparency is the cornerstone of how he maintains trust with drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

Vowles was asked how he handles difficult conversations with his driver line-up amid a challenging rebuilding phase during a live recording of the Up To Speed podcast at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Sainz was the most sought-after driver on the open market before committing to the Grove outfit. However, with Williams encountering development delays over winter, maintaining confidence within the camp has been an essential priority.

According to Vowles, preserving these working relationships requires ensuring that his drivers are the first to know about internal issues, long before the information goes public.

"Step one is like any relationship: transparency. So, from the first signs of trouble around about October last year, he was the first person I called. Alex was the second person I called. The order is not significant; that is just the sequence in which I did it," Vowles explained.

"I want to make sure that they have full transparency on what's gone well, what's gone wrong, and what we're doing to correct it as soon as possible before anything else is made public.

"That transparency creates trust. What doesn't create trust is if you hide anything, I mean, 'We've not got it all right. But I'm going to show you what we're doing about it as a result of it. Here are the changes and here's the line-up.'"

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

He added: "The second bit of it is that 40 of his words and 40 words from Alex are more powerful than me talking for half an hour to a set of individuals. They're incredible leaders if you give them the right stage to perform in that way.

"And what Carlos will say himself is what we have created at Williams means they're able to leave their touch on how we make the car faster, how we improve, how we become a better team.

"A lot of teams these days still treat drivers as a commodity. Go and drive and that's kind of it. That's not how it works at Williams. We're here to be a united front fighting together. There's a lot to do, but there's a path for them to do it."

After the first nine rounds of the 2026 season, Williams sits eighth in the constructors' championship with 11 points.