Vowles says Sainz wants to stay, but has options

James Vowles insists Carlos Sainz wants to finish his Formula 1 career at Williams, but the Spaniard says he has yet to decide where his future lies.

The pair’s comments come amid fresh speculation linking Sainz with Audi and Alpine for 2027, as Williams continues to struggle despite introducing new wings at Silverstone.

"Carlos said yesterday: Williams? That’s where I want to be, that’s where I want to end my career," Vowles told Sky Deutschland.

"Those are his words, not mine. But in this sport, you can never be sure, even if you have a contract."

Vowles also acknowledged that Sainz, whose current contract runs out this year, has alternatives.

"Carlos is free to go, not everywhere, but he has several alternatives," he said.

Sainz, however, insisted he has not yet started weighing up those options.

"Seriously, I haven’t," he told Sky Deutschland when asked if he had considered other seats.

"I haven’t because I simply have so much work to do here at Williams at the moment."

Earlier at Silverstone, he also stressed: "I’m not looking around. I’m focused on the work to be done here at Williams.

"As I communicated to the team, I will think about it during the summer break."

On track, Sainz admitted Williams’ new front wing delivered less than hoped despite a strong sprint qualifying performance.

"It was a very good sprint qualifying session," he said. "It was probably my best lap of the season so far.

"But we brought a front wing that we thought would give us a lot of performance, but it only served to overtake the Haas cars in qualifying, as they were ahead in Austria and we are here.

"But we are still quite far behind the front. We’re still miles away from the top ten.

"The Audis and RBs seem half a second faster, which is too much for our liking. But it is what it is, we’ll keep pushing, we’ll keep giving it our all."