Carlos Sainz wishes to honor his race engineer at Williams, Frenchman Gaetan Jego, for his hard work. The Spaniard made his debut with the British racing team this year and has been working with Jego since then. According to the 31-year-old driver, they both had a tough year, but the podium finish in Baku made up for a lot. Sainz credits his race engineer with the success, as Jego is known for his exceptional work ethic.
Sainz and his race engineer experienced a frustrating season together. Despite several promising performances, the Spanish veteran did not finish higher than eighth place before the GP in Baku. However, in Azerbaijan, he showed his best side and even got to start from the first row. In the end, the ‘smooth operator’ secured third place and his first podium with Williams. During the cooldown lap, race engineer Gaetan Jego was audibly emotional. “You sound a bit emotional, are you okay?” Sainz asked.
Hard Worker
In the run-up to the Singapore GP, Sainz explained that there are few people who show as much dedication as his current race engineer. “It’s been a tough year for both of us,” he said. “You probably don’t see it from the outside, but you can’t imagine how many hours we’ve put into the car, in the simulator sessions, in the development of the setup, in finding more speed.”
“He (Jego, ed.) is an incredibly hard worker, probably the hardest working man I’ve ever worked with in Formula 1 – and I’ve worked with many people,” Sainz added. “I can tell you: no one puts more hours into this sport and this life than he does.” Speaking about his own performance, he said: “You could see that it was starting to get frustrating for me. But I stood my ground and in the end, the results speak for themselves. I am simply happy and proud of my resilience, because after the summer break, I immediately had to endure two heavy blows,” he referred to the races in Zandvoort and Monza. “Bouncing back from that was tough.”
