What can Carlos Sainz bring to Williams? His former race engineer at McLaren responds. Tom Stallard spoke about the contribution Carlos Sainz will make to Williams in 2025.

Much more than just a driver
If Carlos Sainz can be considered one of the best drivers on the grid today, much of it is due to his two years at McLaren between 2019 and 2020. Despite the spotlight being on a young Lando Norris on the rise, Carlos Sainz still managed to achieve great results, to the point of convincing Scuderia Ferrari to choose him as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement in 2021.

While in Maranello he was welcomed by Riccardo Adami as his race engineer, in Woking, the Spaniard worked with Tom Stallard, who is now Oscar Piastri’s race engineer.

The British engineer, who also won a silver medal in rowing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, spoke as a guest on the Beyond The Grid podcast about the contribution Carlos Sainz will bring to Williams in 2025: “Carlos is a brilliant driver to work with. Once, he told me that his dream job in Formula 1 was to be a race engineer before he considered becoming a driver. He loves the technical aspect of Formula 1, which makes sense because his father is the same way in rallying.” – he explained.

“Williams will now have someone who is committed to their technical department, who wants to participate in meetings and push them in the right direction. He loves all these things. Of all the drivers I’ve worked with, he’s the one I have the closest relationship with. He’s very easy to get along with and very demanding when working with him, which is exactly what you want from a driver. He will be a great asset to Williams and will help them a lot.” – the British motorsport engineer added.

Looking back on his two years alongside the Spaniard, Stallard added: “Carlos definitely improved McLaren. He was brilliant. When he joined the team, I believe he had lost his seat at Renault, and his reputation in Formula 1 wasn’t that high.”

“He helped McLaren improve a lot at a time when we needed it. With us, he established himself as one of the best drivers on the grid. He also helped Ferrari a lot, though I don’t recall his time at Toro Rosso and Renault as I didn’t follow it closely.”