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event. I was so nervous on the start that I forgot to do up the Velcro on my shoes!”
While at Cambridge, Tom’s international career continued to progress rapidly, with two appearances in the World Under-23 Rowing Championships, before he broke into the British senior crew in his third year in 2001.
“I missed the Worlds that year, but in my final year I won gold in the coxed four,” said the 2002 Cambridge University Boat Club President.
Then it was on to the pinnacle of rowing – the Olympics – in Athens in 2004 in the British eight, although his initial experience of the Games was a negative one. “It was a bit of a disaster,” he said of the ninth-place finish.
Undeterred, Tom targeted the Beijing Games. “I was the only athlete to complete every race in the eight between Athens and Beijing, making the final every time and winning bronze at the 2007 Worlds,” he continued.
And it was in the Chinese capital that Tom’s persistence paid off, although he admitted that the final was not the British crew’s best performance.
“Our best race was the heat in which we beat the Americans by open water in the fastest time,” he explained.
“The final was not such a good row due to a mistake on the fourth stroke, which meant that at halfway we had expended more energy than we should. We fought bravely in the second half and held off the Americans to get the silver behind Canada.”
Tom also enjoyed a Beijing highlight with an athlete who would go on to become one of Britain’s most famous Olympians – four-time gold medallist Sir Mo Farah.
“After the Closing Ceremony, Mo and I managed to collect a light-up drum and squirrel it back to the Olympic Village past thousands of cheering volunteers,” he recalled. “We had it signed by various medallists and he auctioned it for his charity.”
At that stage of his sporting career,
Tom was already planning for life after rowing, having decided following the Athens disappointment to pursue a career in motorsport while training for Beijing. His interest in cars and automotive engineering had been fuelled at Oundle in the REME sheds with Ron Champion.
He explained: “I did a Motorsport Engineering Master’s course at Brunel and joined McLaren two weeks after I got back from China.
“With my sporting background, a place on the race team was a natural fit and initially I became Performance Engineer for Jenson Button. This role consists of analysing the data coming from the car and helping the driver optimise his driving to make the best of it.
“Then I became Race Engineer, who is the driver’s main technical contact with the team and the guy talking to the driver on the radio – which creates a fantastic opportunity to use what I have learned about sport psychology, giving the right information when the driver needs it. The Race Engineer is also responsible for the set-up of the car and managing the car while it is on the track.”
When Button retired in 2016, he switched to Belgian driver Stoffel Vandoorne for two years and this season he has been Race Engineer
to Spaniard Carlos Sainz. “Although McLaren has been
through a rough spell recently, it now feels like the team is really rebuilding,” Tom said. “This is a team which is prepared to take large risks, which have not always paid off, but does make it an exciting place to work.”
His most memorable moment was probably being Performance Engineer for Button when he won the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, the longest race in F1 history, taking four hours.
“During the race he had to come through the pits six times and was last at the halfway point, but fought back to win, taking the lead only on the very last lap.”
Does he have any advice for OOs wanting to get into F1? “F1 teams are always looking for dedicated and motivated people, but it is hard to allocate new people the correct roles for their strengths,” he replied.
“At McLaren we are looking for people who can demonstrate they want to be the very best in their field, rather than a motorsport weekend warrior. Wikipedia can tell you who came fourth at Kyalami in 1992. Know what you would like to work on specifically and apply directly for that role, whether there is an opening or not.”
FEATURE
Tom Stallard, McLaren’s OO Race Engineer, passing on some advice to driver Carlos Sainz
THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019
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