Williams team principal James Vowles believes "the odds are in our favour" regarding the signing of Carlos Sainz.
Vowles appears close to landing a driver he has made no secret he wants to join Williams, with the hope he will be able to announce before F1 shuts down for its two-week summer break at the end of next week, beating Audi and Alpine to the current Ferrari driver's signature.
Vowles has confirmed holding talks with Sainz "pretty late into a few nights" in recent weeks in the hope of convincing him to join the revolution he has overseen since his arrival from Mercedes early last season.
Regarding those conversations, speaking to select media including RacingNews365, Vowles said: "My perspective is this, and I know I wear a Williams shirt, but I believe so much in what we're doing. That's why I left Mercedes to come here. That's why I'm talking...with the amount of passion I have. I believe in everything we're doing here.
"I'm in it day to day, and I can see the changes day to day. If I gave you a handful of individuals on our team and I said, 'Talk to them about how it was 12 months ago, talk to them about how it is today and what's going to be here in 12 months', the positive stories will just flow out. And that's why I'm positive towards it."
Appreciating Sainz's viewpoint and why he is taking so long to decide, Vowles added: "With Carlos, he can't see much of that. What he looks at is what you can see externally. Where are you? Where do you qualify? Why did you have a bad race here? What's going on here?
"He has one of the largest OEMs [Audi] in the world chasing him. That's hard to turn down, an OEM that his father has won with at the same time. He has a team [Alpine] that has, let's be clear about it, historically beaten us fundamentally.
"And again, that becomes hard to turn down. They won a race not that long ago. I can see that perspective on things.
"Here's what he told me, which actually resonated the most - 'The reason why I'm doing this is when I commit, I need to commit with all my heart and all my soul, 100%, and to do that means I can't have any doubts'.
"And that's why it's taking the time. And that resonated with me a lot."
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Williams the right move for Sainz
As to his confidence in signing Sainz, he said: "I think the odds are in our favour. But I've been stung by this already once this year. So let's see. But the odds are in our favour."
Vowles feels the current instability inside Sauber/Audi and Alpine plays into his hands.
Alpine is changing its team principal, with the team confirming Bruno Famin's departure on Friday, and it is to become a customer team as Renault is pulling out of F1 as a power unit supplier.
At Sauber/Audi, it has decided to change its leadership, with Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffman removed just 18 months before the German manufacturing giant makes its F1 debut, bringing in former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto.
"He's a very sensible chap," said Vowles. "Whatever happens, it's Audi, they're an OEM and they'll pour what is required financially into this to make it successful.
"The change there, I'm not sure if it's good or bad. I'm not enough into the team to be able to know it, but I don't think that's necessarily resonating. Remember, he's looking at the long term - what's the right long-term solution?
"And with Alpine, they'll take an amount of pain and they'll have an amount of success from it as well at the same time. I think he's trying, as you all are as well, to weigh up what the options are.
"I'm biased. We're stable management here. We have no changes ongoing, and we have a hell of a lot of investment in the background. This is why it's an easy decision for me. For him, probably less so."
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