F1 News: Steiner Warns Williams Of Looking 'Pretty Stupid' Over Adrian Newey And Carlos Sainz Rumors

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner recently criticized Williams' pursuit of prominent F1 personalities, Adrian Newey and Carlos Sainz, citing it as potentially embarrassing if unsuccessful.

Steiner has openly critiqued the Williams F1 team's current strategy in attracting major industry players like Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz for their 2025 season. In a bold statement during the "Red Flags" podcast, Steiner described Williams' efforts as "wishful thinking" and speculated that such public pursuits could end in embarrassment if ultimately unsuccessful. This critique comes amidst Williams' attempts to overhaul their team dynamics and improve their standing in the F1 world, where they have found themselves lagging behind competitors significantly in recent years.

During an appearance on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner provided further insight into the situation, indicating that Williams team principal James Vowles has deviated from the typical discretion observed by other team principals, such as Toto Wolff of Mercedes and Fred Vasseur of Ferrari. He commented:

“A few weeks ago, Adrian Newey was going there. I don’t hear anything about that one anymore. I don’t think they’re rumors. James said them openly. It’s not a rumor.

“If the team principal says that he is speaking with Adrian, obviously the press picks it up. That is what the press are there for. If somebody says [something], you need to [report it].

“Obviously not knowing if it is serious or not, I would say it’s a little bit of wishful thinking. Obviously he’s going to speak to people – that is what you [should] be doing, you should be speaking – but before you say [it] you need to be a little more certain that they will happen.

“If Toto [Wolff] or Fred [Vasseur] said who they speak to all day long, we would be like: ‘Wow, next year Ferrari will need a new building to fit in all the people they spoke with.’ It’s a little bit of namedropping as well: ‘We are getting Adrian Newey here.’

“Does Adrian really want to go to Williams? I don’t know. Maybe he wants to, but Adrian has got a lot of opportunities out there. He can pick where he can go. I don’t know why he would pick Williams, but maybe he knows. Maybe they offer him something somebody else cannot offer him, maybe he gets half of the team [to own].”

Steiner continued:

“If you just catch up after a while when you’ve had no success, [what is there to gain when you say] this is what you wanted to do and you didn’t achieve it? The results are the only thing that counts. But it’s not only in Formula 1, it’s in general, it’s in life. You can talk a lot of stuff and never do something.

“Maybe James will get it all and he’s World Champion next year, which I’m fine with. It’d make an interesting Formula 1. It’s difficult to predict that one and if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t be putting my money on that. You always speak with people. As a team principal, you speak with a lot of people but with some it’s just an exchange like: ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’

“It doesn’t mean that Carlos Sainz went to them begging for a cockpit. It’s right for James to ask Carlos: ‘Are you interested in coming to Williams? Let’s have a talk about it.’

“Fred and Toto speak with everybody. They talk with sponsors, they talk with these great companies – but you don’t want to make that public because, if it doesn’t happen, you look pretty stupid. Maybe we will be surprised and Carlos and Adrian sign in the next few weeks. I’d be fine with that.”