F1 boss claims star driver could be future prime minister

carlos sainz, lewis hamilton, williams, ferrari — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

F1 boss claims star driver could be future prime minister

High praise for Carlos Sainz

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 23 January 2026 22:43

McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella has revealed which F1 driver would make the best prime minister, citing that a career in politics could be on the cards.

Stella has worked with a plethora of stars during his time in F1, having been a performance engineer at Ferrari for Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, and a race engineer for Fernando Alonso.

He then moved to McLaren in 2014, before being made team principal in 2023, where he has overseen the winning of back-to-back constructors' championships as well as a championship battle between his two drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

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But despite this, it is another current F1 star that he has revealed would make a good politician, having worked with Carlos Sainz while he was driving for McLaren.

Stella was asked which driver would make the best team principal in an interview, but gave Sainz higher praise than that.

"I never thought about it," Stella admitted in an interview with Its Paddock Project. "I know the one who’d be the best prime minister.

"Because when I was working with Carlos, I always said to him like 'Your career after being a race driver is clear, go in politics, you’ll be the next prime minister in Spain.'"

Sainz's wide ranging F1 career

Sainz has already raced with five teams during his F1 career despite only being 31 years of age, but he has made an impression on all of them.

While at McLaren, Sainz claimed two podiums across his two seasons there, and finished sixth in the drivers' championship in both years.

He beat Norris in the two seasons that the pair spent as team-mates, before moving on to Ferrari where he claimed four grand prix victories across three seasons.

Ferrari's decision to sign seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton for 2025 displaced Sainz and he instead found himself at Williams, a situation that he has very much made the most of.

In 2025, Sainz claimed two grand prix podiums - the first time Williams had scored more than one podium in a season since 2017 - and he helped them to a fifth-place constructors' championship finish.

He's hoping to build the team up into a championship-challenging outfit and then after that, who knows, maybe prime minister of Spain?

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Carlos Sainz Andrea Stella