‘One of the great’ F1 ‘myths’ busted by McLaren race engineer

McLaren race engineer Tom Stallard has busted “one of the great myths” of Formula 1: “different drivers like different kinds of car.”

Stallard, currently Oscar Piastri’s engineer, has worked with the likes of Jenson Button and Daniel Ricciardo at the team in the past, and explained that drivers tend to want the same base characteristics from a car – but what changes from driver to driver is what they dislike and “what really trips them up.”

F1 ‘myth’ around driver requirements debunked by McLaren engineer

As part of a broader discussion around his days working with Button at McLaren and how “phenomenal” the 2009 World Champion was at making the most of changing conditions, Stallard explained that, with the benefit of experience, drivers broadly tend to require the same basic elements from a car to perform at their best, and what changes on a personal level is what they dislike about a car.

What separates the best drivers, though, tends to be how adaptable they can be, which he believes comes with the experience of seeing and driving different circuits in different conditions over time, which in turn helps drivers on their route forwards.

“One of the great myths around Formula 1 is that different drivers like different kinds of car,” Stallard revealed on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“The truth is every driver, their ideal car is the same, and what they’re looking for is the same – what varies is what they hate and what really trips them up.

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“And the bigger you can make your operating window of, ‘Oh, I can cope with this, I can cope with this, and still be really quick’, then the better you do – and some of that comes with experience.”

When asked about this year’s Red Bull and how Michael Schumacher used to dominate within his teams in years gone by, Stallard stated he was “not really qualified” to discuss the inner workings of other teams and how that has come to pass, though he offered reasons for why there can be a significant disparity between two drivers in the same team and how they can be addressed.

“I think normally, when you have one driver who’s so dominant in a team, it’s because the car is in a window, or the car has some characteristics that the other driver really struggles to cope with,” Stallard said.

“And if you can improve those characteristics, you will reduce the deficit between the drivers.

“You won’t necessarily eliminate it, and often what will happen is that the conditions will then unpick the less skilful driver, or the requirement to do a much longer stint than was originally planned, or whatever it may be.

“So you never fully close the gap, but I think that some drivers have a very broad window in which they’re happy that they can get the best out of the car and they can shape the car around them, and other drivers struggle to adapt to those limitations of a car, even though they may be brilliant with other limitations from a car.”

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