ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Carlos Sainz has said his gut feeling drove his decision to join Williams for next year after positive discussion with the team’s executives — the same instinct that told him McLaren were going to be successful as he left the team in 2021.

Sainz, who is being replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton next year, signed a multi-season deal with Williams after months of speculation about his future.

Williams has fallen on hard times in recent years but boss James Vowles has set his sights on reestablishing the famous team as a more competitive force in the next few years.

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Sainz said he buys into that vision and feels like it is a team on an upward trajectory.

“I’ve always had the feeling during all those negotiations, I always had Williams in the back of my head as I always had that good feeling with James [Vowles] and the investment group Dorilton,” Sainz said on Thursday in his first media session since the news was confirmed.

“For me it was important people also, I’ve learned over the years in Formula One to trust in my feeling about people also, I remember when I left McLaren in 2020 I felt like the team was moving forward and was going to be successful in the future, having spent time working with Zak Brown and Andrea Stella.

“When I left McLaren, I said they might not be winning next year or the following year but this team with these people are going to be winning soon, four years later they’re performing at an incredibly high level.

“I had this feeling at that time and now I have this feeling about the people and the culture in Williams, I need to trust that feeling, and this is what I committed to.”

Sainz said the idea of reviving the team gives him inspiration.

“I took the decision because Williams is the team that from the beginning I had very good feeling and very good conversations with, they’re a team very committed to F1 with a very strong project, very strong leadership, and the will to bring back a historic Formula One team with the pedigree Williams has back to the front is something that motivates me.

“It motivated me when I went to McLaren, and when I went to Ferrari when it was down the grid after a tough 2020, and it motivates me now to do a project like Williams, yeah, I cannot wait, and I think it’s going to be an interesting few years in my career.”

After the move was made public, Vowles said he first approached Sainz at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the end of last season and made signing him his top priority, something the Spaniard appreciated.

“It was very important, obviously he’s the leader of the project and he has the vision and he shared that vision, and he convinced me. He did a very good job in that sense into convincing me and into sharing the vision he has and the project he has in mind with me,” Sainz said.

“I think we are relatively similar characters in that we are both very analytical, very fair and open, and he convinced me, as simple as that.”