Netflix's Drive to Survive gets flack for creating drama — but sometimes, the drama is creating reality. As when, in episode four of the latest season (releasing March 7th), we see Carlos Sainz ghost James Vowles and Williams in June of last summer, prolonging what Vowles assumed was a done deal.
In an episode from the latest season of Drive to Survive, aptly titled "Carlos Signs," cameras follow the 30-year-old Spaniard as he figures out where to go, having been ousted from his Ferrari seat by Lewis Hamilton.
“I honestly didn’t expect it. It leaves me bitter,” Sainz says of being replaced by the seven-time world champion. “I’m going to negotiate and get myself a good deal.” We see Williams' Vowles, courting the Spaniard, tell the shows producers that Sainz could completely transform the team. “I wake up in the morning and I go to sleep at night thinking of nothing else,” Vowles says.
At the time, the paddock was abuzz with speculation that Sainz would put pen to paper in Barcelona at the Spanish Grand Prix after Vowles was spotted having a confidential meeting with Sainz’s manager, Carlos "Caco" Oñoro. “I really am confident this is a good contract and a good place. I know I’m going to get stronger over the next few races, I’m quite an honorable individual,” Vowles tells Oñoro during the closed-door conversation. “You want a relationship? I want a relationship. Let’s put a piece of paper together that covers it off.”
In the episode, McLaren’s Zak Brown is seen telling Lando Norris that he “busted Caco and Vowles having breakfast.” Norris reveals that his friend and former teammate is still trying to decide between Williams and Sauber (set to become Audi in 2026). “I spoke to Carlos yesterday. In the short term it’s Williams, but longer term Audi,” Norris shares. Word of the deal had even made its way to Red Bull, where communications boss Paul Smith was heard telling Christian Horner that Williams had “pretty much confirmed Sainz.”
Vowles was so confident that the contract would be signed at his hotel that night, he's seen in the episode telling Williams board member (and Pippa Middleton’s husband) James Matthews that they are “pretty much there.” He then quips to camera, “Signing a driver has some similarities to dating. You start with texts, then [there’s] dinner, then you end up in a hotel room.”
Cut to: Williams team members closing the blinds of a hotel conference room and putting champagne on ice next to Sainz’s soon-to-be-signed contract. More than 20 minutes go by without word from his Sainz's team. Eventually, it's revealed that the smooth operator won't be coming. “You were going to sign for Williams but then changed your mind. What happened there?” a producer asks Sainz, to which he responds, “Flavio [Briatore] called me.” The controversial Italian businessman returned to Formula 1 last spring as an executive advisor to Alpine, and set out to complicate Sainz's plans.
“Carlos has got doubts. I think he’s evaluating every single team available,” Oñoro is heard telling Vowles on the phone a few weeks later at the British Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, we see Sainz probe Alpine driver Pierre Gasly for information about the car's performance, while Jack Doohan jokes that the Spaniard is acting like "the paddock sl*t" for continuing to weigh up his options. Horner says that Briatore won't give him the best deal. “Flavio will f**k him 100 per cent, and he’s expensive, which Flavio will hate,” the Red Bull boss is caught by "Drive to Survive" cameras telling colleagues.
As we know now, a few more weeks would pass before Sainz finally signed with Williams in late July, inking a two year deal.
“Congratulations,” Vowles says as his new driver walks into a hotel conference room to make the signing official.
