Williams reveal Carlos Sainz ‘reset’ meeting before Baku heroics

Williams team principal James Vowles has revealed that he had a
meeting with Carlos Sainz on media day ahead of the Azerbaijan
Grand Prix, deeming it a "reset point".  Sainz and Vowles went for
dinner in Baku ahead of Sainz's heroics in both qualifying and the
grand prix.  The Spaniard delivered a sublime performance in tricky
conditions to qualify in second, having been on provisional pole
for much of Q3.  He backed it up by converting second on the grid
into third in the race, marking an emotional moment in what has
been a difficult season for Sainz.  Moving from Ferrari to Williams
was always going to be a challenge for the 31-year-old, who has
taken time adjusting to being back in the midfield.  Luck has not
been on Sainz's side, although Alex Albon has largely out-performed
him across the campaign. His Baku podium represented his first
points since Canada, ending a six-race streak without finishing in
the top 10. His meeting with Vowles appears to have been an
immediate turning point, with the Williams boss and Sainz having
both cleared the air.  "He and I have a really good relationship
where we talk really candidly and openly about what's going on,
what's going wrong, and what's going right? And how do we
capitalise on it together?" Vowles told The Race . "And the real
key is this. His performance has always been there. If you didn't
have performance, this becomes really tough, and it's really hard
to put one thing on, 'This has happened', because so many things
have across the season. "We had dinner here on Thursday, which was
basically a reset point of: 'What do we do going forward? How can I
help? And how do we do this?' "Carlos was in a great place at that
point. And I'm not surprised he came into this weekend swinging,
because that was the mood that he had from the outset."