Carlos Sainz Jr. and McLaren charged their way to the front of the midfield pack in 2019, occasionally troubling the leaders, as they laid the groundwork for the future. Motorsport Week catches up with Sainz Jr. for an in-depth chat.
When confirmation came mid-2018 that Carlos Sainz Jr. and McLaren would enter a two-year deal it tied together a couple of parties who had a point to prove. Sainz Jr. had been overlooked by Red Bull and Renault while over at McLaren the vacancy arose because Fernando Alonso’s patience and enthusiasm had waned. McLaren was in the midst of a managerial overhaul while its performances were lacklustre and had yet to reach the nadir. To all intents and purposes, McLaren looked a mess. This is what Sainz Jr., whose own reputation remained unknown, was walking into.
Fast forward 12 months and Sainz Jr. has firmly established himself as Formula 1’s standout midfielder, with a sequence of superb performances, facilitated by a reborn McLaren team whose 2019 displays far exceeded expectation. What may have initially seemed a questionable relationship rapidly and successfully flourished, peaking with the Brazil podium, earning sixth in the championship for Sainz Jr., and fourth for McLaren. And those positive signs were already there as soon as Sainz Jr. put pen to paper at Woking.
.JPG)
“When I joined McLaren, I was not like “I'm pretty sure [that] a car next year [in 2019] is going to be as bad as it is in 2018"… that never went through my mind,” he says.
“Because since the moment that I negotiated my contract with McLaren, and I started speaking to people inside the team, you could already feel a bit of a different mindset and a different atmosphere building up within the team.”
At that stage McLaren had restructured its organisation, axed previous designers, parted company from Eric Boullier, and was putting the wheels in motion that would lead to the hiring of Andreas Seidl and James Key as Team Principal and Technical Director respectively.
“There was this admission of error, where everyone was… there was this blaming culture of saying 'we've got it wrong this year, and we want to make it better next year', which for me is very important,” says Sainz Jr. “There was no finger pointing, there was a lot of self-criticism.
“A lot of people were really wanting 2019 to arrive, because they knew they had done mistakes in 2018. And for me that already created a good team atmosphere and optimism for 2019. Then obviously the 2019 season has gone better than I expected. I didn't expect the team to make such a big jump. I expected a better year, but not to dominate the midfield the way we've dominated – in a way, because we haven't – this year.”
.JPG)
Landing a seat at McLaren provided Sainz Jr. with the first real opportunity to prove himself on his own terms. Red Bull facilitated his rise to Formula 1 but with Toro Rosso there was always a glass ceiling, while the loan arrangement of his Renault deal meant there was never a chance to fully settle and lay the groundwork for a medium- or long-term project.
Sainz Jr., who previously lived in Chelsea, found a flat in Weybridge – close to the McLaren Technology Centre – in order to assist his own integration, and to show his commitment to a team that craved an upwards curve.
“It was important,” says Sainz Jr. on living near McLaren. “Obviously it is the first time that I had a bit of a reassurance, that I was going to be there for a decent amount of time. You can plan your life a bit more in a mid-term [contract], not so much on a short-term. So the fact that it was a two-year deal and I have lived in the UK before, so I more or less knew how to do everything, was just very comfortable for me and I think the right step to try and help McLaren too as much as I can basically.”
What Weybridge lacks in Spanish restaurants, much to Sainz Jr.’s frustration, it at least makes up for in golf courses – allowing the 24-year-old to pursue his other passion – but regular trips to the MTC remain the priority.
.JPG)
“I'm there mainly Monday to Friday, and I'm trying to spend as much time there,” he says. “Basically it is a working environment: Monday to Friday I train, I go to a factory, simulator, I meet people, I do some marketing activities, take everything out of the way Monday to Thursday, Monday to Friday and then sometimes I get to go back home [to Madrid]. Sometimes drivers we complain but we actually have a lot of free time, you know, and if that free time is spent well and organised well I think you can produce some good, nice working environments.”
In moving to Weybridge, and getting himself assimilated with McLaren as soon as possible, it strengthened the ties between driver and team straightaway. Upon his first test with McLaren after last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Sainz Jr. spoke of immediately feeling at home, and once the pre-season period rolled around the respective parties appeared a natural fit. Sainz Jr. failed to score across the opening trio of grands prix but always knew the tables would turn – and turn they did.
“For me the first race already I felt… you can call me crazy, but even after those three races, [I felt that] as soon as these things stop happening, I was going to have fun.
“Previously in [the] Red Bull [junior system] or Renault, you have three zeros, you might get a bit stressed, you say 'I need to get the result'. There [after three races with McLaren] I was totally relaxed.
“I'm thinking as soon as these things that happen in racing stop happening I am gonna have fun, and I'm gonna have a strong season.”
.JPG)
Freed from the uncertainty at Toro Rosso, and short-term Renault contract, it gave Sainz Jr. a new mentality.
“I think this stability has given me a chance to show a bit of a new Carlos, that maybe the paddock in general or many people hadn't seen,” he contemplates at the end of a year in which he reached 100 grands prix.
“I knew that was inside, I just needed the right environment, I guess, and the right mindset.
“There's been a few changes that I've made from '18 to '19, that for sure have helped, but mainly having that stability, having that extra confidence to go for moves, you know, for the move on Max [Verstappen] in Bahrain, that maybe before I would have thought twice about it, because I need to bank in this P5 or P6, it is a very good result for me, let's not attack Max so much, because he's anyway gonna beat me at the end of the race. [I had] this kind of mentality of “no, I'm just gonna push, I'm just going to try and do the best I can”, because I'm I have finally a bit of stability and a bit of a place where I can be myself more often.”
And being himself meant that he gained something of a nickname through 2019, and it involved the reworking of an almost-forgotten 1980s hit.
.JPG)
“Smooth Operator was just a song that kept coming up on the car radio during the British Grand Prix weekend,” explains Sainz Jr. of the origin. “I heard it in the car going to the circuit, it was on the radio, maybe Radio 1.”
McLaren’s press guru, Charlotte, interjects to suggest that Smooth Operator is hardly Radio 1’s demographic and that the gentler Magic FM was a more likely station.
“Okay. Okay. Thank you. Anyway, apparently it is quite a famous song. After this race I sang the song, and then learned about a smooth operator so it became a bit of a joke around me. And I like it. I looked online on YouTube at the song and I went through the comments, and there’s some really funny ones, such as “like this comment if you are here because of Carlos” and you see it has 1000 likes!”
That jovial atmosphere has extended to Sainz Jr.’s relationship with team-mate Lando Norris, who stepped up to a race seat for 2019. The pair’s partnership bordered on the bromance and they’ve given their media team enough content to last a decade.
“It's been a bit of a nice surprise, you know, to find someone like Lando that I get on very well with,” says Sainz Jr., who now has a gaming rig set up in his flat to try and beat video game fanatic Norris.
“We managed to be super competitive on track, and when we are in engineering meetings we joke about who was faster in which corner before qualifying, teasing each other 'I'm going to go quicker now in qualy around here, don't worry'… You know, very competitive but healthy.
“I'm sure that if we would be fighting for P1 or P2, it wouldn't be as easy or as nice. But at least we have found this nice stable environment that I'm sure the team appreciates.
“[And] I actually think it should be fairly easy, unless you're fighting for a world championship. A world championship I think makes everyone a lot more nervous, a lot more tense. I think it's acceptable but I think until you fight for a world championship, where everything becomes a lot more nervous and tense, I think the atmosphere outside the car should be always decent.”
.jpg)
McLaren boss Seidl has set the team the early target to continue reeling in Formula 1’s top three teams next year, but serious progress is unlikely to come until 2021 at the earliest, under overhauled regulations.
Is that a realistic proposition?
“I don't know, it's obviously very difficult,” says the erudite Sainz Jr.
“But I feel like 2021 is going to be the biggest opportunity for teams that are not top teams at the moment. And drivers. So we're going to see a very different Formula 1. Taking into account that the 2021 cars are going to be developed without the budget cap. So the top three teams are going to spend and they're going to create still an advantage.
“But I still think the cars are going to be a lot more restricted in how you can develop and everything so it's going to be more difficult for teams to create an advantage.”
Overall, though, that’s still a vision at least 14 months away. McLaren still has to focus on making gains for 2020, with Sainz Jr. buoyant over 2019 progress, sealing sixth in the standings with a last-lap pass in Abu Dhabi.
“We've somehow managed to score two or three P5s, one podium, a lot of P7s and P8s, you know, and we put ourselves in a position to fight,” he says. "It [P6 in the standings] is the cherry on the cake. The cake was already there."
If McLaren can continue its growth then Formula 1’s Smooth Operator will surely be troubling the top teams more frequently in the future.
.JPG)
