{"id":374003,"date":"2025-12-28T23:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T23:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/374003\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T23:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T23:20:13","slug":"if-you-stuck-sainz-in-a-mclaren-he-would-have-been-going-for-the-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/374003\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;If you stuck Sainz in a McLaren, he would have been going for the title&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former FIA steward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/johnny-herbert\" title=\"Johnny Herbert\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Johnny Herbert<\/a> has compared <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/carlos-sainz\" title=\"Carlos Sainz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carlos Sainz<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/max-verstappen\" title=\"Max Verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a>, highlighting the Spaniard\u2019s standout qualities in his first season at Williams.&#8221;He\u2019s someone who flies a little bit more under the radar because he&#8217;s not as verbal a driver or as in-your-face as Max (Verstappen) is, for example.&#8221;- Johnny Herbert<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard wrapped up the season on a strong upward trajectory, emerging impressively from the difficulties he faced in the first half of the year \u2014 finishing just behind his team-mate, but with two podiums as the icing on the cake and high morale heading into next season, where Williams are hoping to play a leading role.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarlos seems to be a massive addition with all the experience that he&#8217;s had in recent times at Ferrari, Herbert told a betting site. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe saw how good he was up against Charles Leclerc for example. It took him a little bit of time to get comfortable with the team and the car but then once again, in the second part of the season, he really started to come alive again.<\/p>\n<p>The former FIA steward is convinced that, if given a title-winning car, Sainz would be ready to fight for a world championship \u2014 even if, in his view, his characteristics differ from those of a driver like Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/carlos-sainz-podium-qatar-692dad539b26d.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"carlos-sainz-podium-qatar-jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: RacePictures<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they were able to give him the car that he needs, if you stuck him in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-teams\/mclaren\" title=\"McLaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a>, he would have been going for the World Championship. He\u2019s someone who flies a little bit more under the radar because he&#8217;s not as verbal a driver or as in-your-face as Max (Verstappen) is, for example. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just gets on with the job, very much like his father. He\u2019s got a very good work ethic and that work ethic is something that is very important within a team structure. I hope he gets a real chance of getting in a car that would give him that shot of the world championship because I think he would achieve it very professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/general\/mercedes-and-red-bull-could-reportedly-gain-around-04-seconds-per-lap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">With a Mercedes power unit that is widely rumoured to hold a significant advantage over the competition,<\/a> the Grove-based team Williams are hoping to return to former glories \u2014 echoing 2014, when the sheer superiority of the Mercedes engine propelled them into the ranks of the front-running teams from the very first race.Villeneuve names the rare skill that both Verstappen and Sainz share<\/p>\n<p>While Herbert underlined the different personalities of the two, the 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve pointed out one key element he believes they share.<\/p>\n<p>Both made their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> debut exactly ten years ago, lining up as team-mates at Toro Rosso \u2014 even though their careers have since taken very different paths as time has gone on.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/villeneuve-names-the-rare-skill-that-both-verstappen-and-sainz-share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Here\u2019s what Villeneuve was referring to.<\/a>Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> paddock? Then GPblog&#8217;s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog&#8217;s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former FIA steward Johnny Herbert has compared Carlos Sainz to Max Verstappen, highlighting the Spaniard\u2019s standout qualities in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,3020,578,28673,576,577,38259,1885,590,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-374003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-carlos-sainz","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-news","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-johnny-herbert","16":"tag-max-verstappen","17":"tag-mclaren","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}