Vowles surprised by Red Bull and Mercedes: 'Why don't you want Sainz?'

"Yes," is Vowles' short answer, to the GPblog's question whether Vowles was surprised that the top teams did not want to commit to Sainz. "Because I rate him as one of the top four drivers, if not, at times, the number two driver on the grid. Why wouldn't you want that in your stable? Because my view of things is that fundamentally, competitors are getting closer and closer, so the marginal difference that a driver can make. And I don’t just mean in performance terms."

Then the British team principal continued. "Look at every team he has been in, they have improved significantly. And I get why, after spending the last nine months talking to him, at least weekly, if not daily in truth. Rachel, my partner has been very confused as to our relationship together relative to mine with Carlos. But what I've realised with him is that he is a performance machine. He absolutely will do everything it takes within his power to not transform just himself, but the team around him as well at the same time."

Vowles would 'put Sainz alongside Verstappen'

According to Vowles, that is a powerful trait in a driver. "That's worth more than what he can drive the car at, that’s worth that you move the team forward by the same amount. So when you're in Red Bull's position where you've got a Constructors' Championship at risk, I would… I mean, it's always a hard decision, but yes, I would have Carlos alongside Max."

"If you're in Mercedes, it's a hard choice. But I think they've swayed between not being competitive, in which case it makes sense to invest in the future, to being very competitive, now it's a harder decision as to whether you invest in known entities or unknown. But that said, if Mercedes have made that decision, they have far more information than I do, it's more than likely that they're very confident with the direction that they'll be travelling in. Whether that be Max or Kimi, I'm unsure, but my point is they're not fools."

"They've made this decision sensitively and if Red Bull have decided to do this, again there's reasons behind it that I won't be aware of, because they are multiple world champions. So they don't make decisions lightly. But I was surprised," Vowles concluded.