Williams Senior Race Engineer Dave Robson is anticipating Carlos Sainz to be “demanding” on the engineers as soon as he arrives at the Formula 1 team next season.
The Grove-based squad announced earlier this week that it has attained a huge coup in pipping both Alpine and the Sauber/Audi venture to Sainz’s coveted signature.
Sainz will make the move once his last campaign with Ferrari ends, and he will deliver race-winning pedigree having landed three victories in his time with the marque.
The Spaniard has gained a reputation in the series as an engineer’s dream and Robson is expecting him to raise the standards the moment he walks through the door.
“I think there’s a couple of things that are going to be a little bit daunting for us as an engineering team,” Robson admitted.
“I think there’s no doubt that it’s great news for us and a real signal of intent and will definitely make things better.
“I think Carlos himself, I don’t really know him as an individual.
“But I do know he has a reputation for really driving every… Well, driving everybody very hard to get everything out of the car. He’s going to be demanding, I’m sure, which we need.”
Sainz will replace Logan Sargeant, who has struggled in his sophomore F1 season, to partner Alex Albon, who signed a multi-term contract extension earlier this year.
Robson has proclaimed that the supposition that the two will be well-matched on the race track could create added complications to manage on the Williams pit wall.
“I know from my early time at Williams when we had Felipe [Massa] and Valtteri [Bottas], or before that at McLaren, when you have got two drivers who are pushing each other and fighting for the serious points-paying positions, then it becomes much more difficult,” he explained.
“It’s just an order of magnitude, more difficult on the pit wall when you’ve got two cars directly racing each other.
“There’s no reason to think that it’s going to end up being bad, definitely not, it’s going to end up being good, but it’s definitely going to be different to what we’ve kind of got used to.”
Robson believes that having an entire season to adapt to Sainz’s approach will prove pivotal as the sport prepares to encounter an extensive regulation reset in 2026.
“I think with a view to 2026… there’s a load of engineering work to do to understand the car better and make the car faster and take what we can into 2026,” he added.
“A lot of the learning process next year will be about understanding Carlos himself, reworking the dynamic of the team trackside and at the factory, to understand how to deal with two drivers who are competing with each other.
“It’s fantastic news, but it’s definitely going to shake us up a bit – in a good way.”
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