Flavio Briatore Throws Driver Choice Down Priority List After Only Option Carlos Sainz Takes Williams Route

Alpine’s driver recruitment woes seem to be never-ending. The French squad needs a new team member as Esteban Ocon has announced that he will walk out at the end of the current F1 season. Before making a decision regarding which racer would succeed, Ocon, Alpine’s parent body, Renault, brought Flavio Briatore back to the team. Although infamous for his involvement in the 2008 Singapore GP crashgate incident, Briatore is somewhat of a kingpin in Formula 1. Under his tenure as the Renault team principal, Fernando Alonso attained two World Championship titles.

After serving his time away from Formula 1, Briatore has already found himself in the thick of things. The Italians targeted Carlos Sainz to hire him as Alpine’s new recruit since Ferrari will be letting the Spaniard go ahead in 2025. At one point in time, Briatore’s convincing skills had helped him lure Michael Schumacher to Benetton in 1991. However, those charms did not work on Sainz Jr. as the #55 racer decided to place his faith in James Vowles’ vision for Williams. Thus, Briatore lost his potential recruit to the Grove-based team amidst rumors of Jack Doohan’s arrival at Alpine.

In a recent interview, Briatore did not speak of Jack Doohan when he was asked about his plans for Alpine’s next hire. In fact, the 74-year-old only spoke of Sainz. He said to Eddie Jordan on the ‘Formula for Success’ podcast: “I don’t know yet [about which driver will get Ocon’s Alpine seat]. You know, at this moment you need to put the team together. The technical side, the management side…the driver will not make a difference now. In 2006, 2007…the difference was made by the driver. At this moment, I believe, only one driver was available, that is Carlos Sainz. I believe he has gone to Williams.”

Thus, Briatore’s words have made it clear that he was only pursuing Carlos Sainz. And now that the Spaniard is not available anymore, he wants to shift his focus to solidifying the management and technical aspects of Alpine. But what made Sainz choose Williams over all his other options?

Carlos Sainz’s Williams move might be solely because of Vowles

Last year, James Vowles took up the reigns at Williams after a long tenure as a Mercedes executive. Then started his move to rebuild the team from the roots. As per a New York Times report, there has been a paradigm shift in Williams’ team structure. Before James Vowles had joined the legacy squad, it had 700 employees. But the number swelled to 1,000 employees after the new team principal came in, and recently, Vowles has recruited 26 experienced officials from Ferrari, Mercedes, and Alpine as well.

And it is not just the new developments at Williams that seem to have lured Carlos Sainz to join them. James Vowles established a connection with the 29-year-old by pursuing him wholeheartedly. He even said that the two of them had spoken “pretty late into a few nights” about their visions for Williams. Naturally, when the time came for Carlos Sainz to sign the contracts, he chose the team that he believed in the most–and that happens to be Williams.

With Carlos Sainz choosing to go to the Grove-based team, Alpine needs to pick a teammate for Pierre Gasly soon. Do you think the job is definitely going to Jack Doohan, or is there another mystery recruit on your mind? Let us know in the comments below.