‘He’s demanding when he needs to be’ – Sainz’s former race engineer explains what Williams can expect from him

Carlos Sainz’s former race engineer Tom Stallard – who worked with the Spaniard at McLaren – has given an insight into what Williams can expect from the driver when he joins the team next season, with Stallard confident that Sainz will be a “big asset” to the Grove outfit.

Sainz spent two years working alongside Stallard whilst racing for McLaren in 2019 and 2020, a time in which he claimed the first two podiums of the 25 that he has achieved so far in his Formula 1 career.

READ MORE: ‘Now he’d like another one!’ – Carlos Sainz Sr reflects on son’s emotional Mexico win as Ferrari chapter draws to a close

During an appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Stallard was quizzed on what kind of a driver Williams are getting in Sainz ahead of his arrival in 2025.

“Carlos is a brilliant driver to work with,” explained Stallard, who currently acts as race engineer to Oscar Piastri at McLaren. “Carlos once said to me, when we asked him what his ideal job in Formula 1 was, he said race engineer before he considered whether driver was an option!

“He loves the engineering and the technical side of Formula 1. It makes sense because his dad, Carlos Senior, is the same in rally.

“So I think they are getting someone who will really want to engage with their technical department, who will want to join engineering meetings and help them [to] be pushing in the right direction. He absolutely loves all that.”

Reflecting further on Sainz’s qualities, Stallard – who has worked with drivers including Jenson Button and Daniel Ricciardo – continued: “Carlos is, probably of all the drivers I’ve worked with, the one I’ve stayed closest friends with when I’ve stopped working directly with them.

READ MORE: Piastri’s race engineer pinpoints the qualities he reckons will make the McLaren driver a champion

“He’s a really easy-going, nice guy to deal with. He’s kind of demanding when he needs to be demanding – you actually want to work with someone who’s demanding when things need to be demanding.

“But he’s funny, he’s a bit wacky, he’s definitely going to be a big asset to the Williams team and I think [he] will help them a lot.”

Williams boss James Vowles has made no secret of his belief that Williams will have the best driver line-up on the grid in 2025 when Sainz partners with the incumbent Alex Albon.

When asked if he agrees with the idea that Sainz has improved every team he has driven for – with the Spaniard having started his F1 career with Toro Rosso, before stints with Renault, McLaren and Ferrari followed – Stallard answered: “Certainly he improved McLaren – he was brilliant at McLaren.

“I think when he joined McLaren – he’d been dropped by Renault as it was at the time – and his stock in Formula 1 to be honest wasn’t that high, I think that he helped McLaren improve a lot at the time when we really needed that, and I think that we set him back on his feet and positioned him correctly as one of the top drivers in Formula 1.

READ MORE: Life as a ‘smooth operator’, work experience dreams and his dad’s valuable advice – Getting to know the real Carlos Sainz

“So I think that is true, I think he’s clearly helped Ferrari as well. Genuinely I’d say they’re a very realistic challenge in the constructors’ championship at the moment, and no small part of that should sit with him.

“That probably is fair, [but] it’s much harder for me to talk about the [Toro Rosso and] Renault days when to be honest I didn’t follow him that closely, until he arrived at McLaren and I was like, ‘Oh, it turns out he’s pretty good’.”

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