Carlos Sainz

Last season McLaren made a promising start with five points finishes from the first five grands prix, and briefly held third in the constructors' championship.<br>It then stagnated, drifting back to a distant sixth in the standings and spending much of the year in a battle with Williams at the tail of the field.<br>The team began this year with a Q3 appearance courtesy of Lando Norris in ...

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All bar one of Sainz's four seasons in F1 have been with Renault power, and he drove for the French manufacturer's own team at the end of 2017 and all of 2018.<br>Renault's lack of progress, particularly in qualifying trim, was a key factor in the breakdown of its relationship with Red Bull and left McLaren as its only customer for 2019.<br>After an encouraging qualifying performance in the ...

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The Renault convert started only 18th after encountering Robert Kubica's puncture-hobbled Williams on his final Q1 lap, and then became the race's first retirement with an MGU-K failure while running 14th on lap nine of the 58-lap event.<br>Given that he was running between eventual ninth and 10th place finishers Lance Stroll and Daniil Kvyat at the time, Sainz was convinced he would have gone on ...

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After his squadmate Lando Norris set the pace on the first day of the second week of testing, Sainz took over in the MCL34 to post the fastest lap of the F1 pre-season so far, a 1m17.144s.<br>The lap, set on the C4 tyre compound, is a quarter of a second quicker than Nico Hulkenberg's opening-week benchmark for Renault, and is within a second of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton's Spanish Grand Prix ...

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Sainz set his benchmark time of 1m17.144s within the first two hours of the morning before going on to complete more laps than any other driver with 130.<br>His leading time never looked close to being threatened until the final 20 minutes of the day.<br>Racing Point - which again lagged behind in the mileage stakes - bolted a set of C4 tyres on Sergio Perez's car, which he used to go second with ...

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Sainz took over the MCL34 from teammate Lando Norris - who ended Tuesday's first day on top despite twice stopping out on track - on Wednesday morning and went fastest on his first timed run towards the end of the first hour with a 1m18.878s.<br>His next improvement took him into the mid-1m17s, before he set his session-topping 1m17.144s lap on the softer C4 compound around an hour and a quarter ...

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Former Renault and Toro Rosso driver Sainz set the second-fastest time on Monday on the C3 tyre, eclipsing Haas man Romain Grosjean to emerge as pacesetter Sebastian Vettel's nearest challenger.<br>The Spaniard also completed 119 laps, the third-most of any driver, despite suffering a delay when his car lost drive at the exit of the pitlane and he had to be wheeled back in at the start of the ...

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Renault has talked up the progress it has made with its 2019 powerunit, with the company's F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul saying it had found "significant" power gains over the winter.<br>While Sainz is not getting too carried by the positive early talk yet, he says that the benefits to his own team could be important if the progress proves to be real.<br>"Everyone looks to be talking very ...

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Hulkenberg won F1’s ‘Class B’ fight last season, finishing seventh in the championship behind the drivers at Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.<br>However, joining Renault in 2017 to spearhead its works team effort represented a longer-term project as the French manufacturer is a recent re-addition to the grid.<br>That means Hulkenberg is still searching for his first podium finish, holding an ...

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Sainz has signed a two-year McLaren deal after losing his Renault drive to Daniel Ricciardo.<br>The Spaniard contested the final four races of 2017 with Renault before completing the entire 2018 season with the French manufacturer.<br>"Moving to Renault has been a great experience for me and going to a team like McLaren with similar resources is going to help me," said Sainz.<br>"This year of ...

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McLaren has won 182 races and sits only behind Ferrari (235 victories) in the all-time list, but has suffered six winless seasons and not scored a podium since the 2014 opener in Australia.<br>Its 2018 season was blighted by an inherent aerodynamic problem the team claims to have understood for a fresh start in 2019, when Sainz joins alongside Formula 2 graduate Lando Norris.<br>"I want to see ...

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Sainz snuck into the top 10 of the championship by securing his first best-of-the-rest win of the year in Abu Dhabi, in which he finished sixth, but lost other big because of mechanical problems.<br>The 2019 McLaren signing found it painful to miss such results that given how much effort had gone into overcoming early-season difficulties getting on top of things at Renault, which he had only ...

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After a difficult 2018 campaign that was hindered by a fundamental aero problem on the MCL33, McLaren has undertaken a restructuring to help ensure it does not repeat its mistakes in the future. And although the squad was unable to show its progress in understanding the problems on track, Sainz says that the message he has had from McLaren team members is that it knows what steps it needs to ...

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After a difficult 2018 campaign that was hindered by a fundamental aero problem on the MCL33, McLaren has undertaken a restructuring to help ensure it does not repeat its mistakes in the future. And although the squad was unable to show its progress in understanding the problems on track, Sainz says that the message he has had from McLaren team members is that it knows what steps it needs to ...

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The Spaniard and fellow rookie Max Verstappen endured some tense times during their first season in Formula 1, as they knew that the winner of their battle would likely get promotion to the Red Bull team. Despite there being very little to separate the pair in pace terms, it was Verstappen who eventually got to move up - and he took a maiden win on his first outing for Red Bull at the 2016 ...

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The Spaniard and fellow rookie Max Verstappen endured some tense times during their first season in Formula 1, as they knew that the winner of their battle would likely get promotion to the Red Bull team. Despite there being very little to separate the pair in pace terms, it was Verstappen who eventually got to move up - and he took a maiden win on his first outing for Red Bull at the 2016 ...

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With the Spaniard having much more experience than rookie teammate Lando Norris, Sainz knows that the outfit will be relying more him to help give it direction. But rather than be wary about the extra responsibility he will have next year, he says it is exciting and empowering for him. “It feels good, it feels in a way powerful,” he said, when asked by Motorsport.com about if he felt ...

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With the Spaniard having much more experience than rookie teammate Lando Norris, Sainz knows that the outfit will be relying more him to help give it direction. But rather than be wary about the extra responsibility he will have next year, he says it is exciting and empowering for him. “It feels good, it feels in a way powerful,” he said, when asked by Motorsport.com about if he felt ...

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The Spaniard, who is switching to McLaren next season after his former team swooped for Daniel Ricciardo, has revealed that he never fully got on top of why he struggled when it came to extracting the best single-lap pace. "When it comes to finding the limits of the Renault car, it was where I tend to struggle a bit," said Sainz, when asked by Motorsport.com to evaluate his performances this ...

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Sainz was given permission to join McLaren early ahead of racing for the team in 2019, having concluded his Renault campaign in last week's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Spaniard had predicted driving in the Abu Dhabi tyre test would give him a vital "head start" on preparations for next season and he completed 150 laps when he appeared on Wednesday. "After the race finished in Abu Dhabi, we've ...

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In his last outing for Renault, Sainz started with a free choice of tyres having qualified 11th, and a marathon 37-lap first stint on ultrasofts saw him climb up the order to beat drivers who had started ahead on hypersofts. Sainz made it clear that it was the perfect way to sign off at Renault and head to his new team. “We’re opening a new chapter with a great result,” he said ...

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The Spaniard has been released by Renault to get his first experience of the MCL33 on Wednesday, while his 2019 teammate Lando Norris will drive on Tuesday. Other drivers who will sample the cars of their future teams for the first time include George Russell (Williams) and Lance Stroll (Racing Point Force India). Kimi Raikkonen is expected to be allowed to drive for Sauber, although it has ...

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Renault’s performance in the United States and the Mexico gave the French manufacturer a welcome boost in a difficult second half of the season and has helped it all-but-cement fourth place in the constructors’ championship. However, after finishing best-of-the-rest behind Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in the previous two GPs, Renault struggled in Friday practice at Interlagos and ...

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The Spaniard found out over the summer that he was being replaced by Daniel Ricciardo for 2019, but wasted little time in sorting out a deal to switch to McLaren. Although being out of his current outfit could have prompted Sainz to ease off, he says the situation actually helped inspire him to push harder and deliver the four points-scoring finishes he has had since the summer ...

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Sainz finished third behind the two Red Bulls in both FP1 and FP2, outpacing the Ferrari and Mercedes cars that have normally been out of reach for the Renault RS18. And while the Spaniard described the day as “surprisingly good” for his team, he said the midfield picture suggested Renault hadn't suddenly made a major step forward compared to last weekend's race in Austin. “It's very ...

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