After qualifying in eighth on his debut weekend at Renault, Carlos Sainz Jr believes his new team is closing in on Formula 1’s top three.
Sainz made a mid-season switch from Toro Rosso to Renault for the final four races in 2017, replacing the outbound Jolyon Palmer.
This weekend’s US Grand Prix is Sainz’s first weekend with his new team. Having comfortably progressed to Q3, he qualified in eighth place but will start seventh courtesy of Max Verstappen’s 15-place grid penalty.
“I’ve enjoyed it a lot,” Sainz said of his debut weekend so far. “It hasn’t been easy with an engine change before qualifying which compromised our start to Q1.
“With the wind picking up and track temp coming up I didn’t know how the car was going to react to that, as it was my first proper qualifying in low fuel, with high winds.
“But, more or less, it’s been very good so far. I’ve managed to adapt well to everything and my side of the garage has been very good to me, showing me a lot of new stuff and we are enjoying it together.”
In joining Renault from Toro Rosso, Sainz has switched sides in F1’s intense midfield battle. Renault currently sits eighth in the constructors’ standings with 42 points, albeit just 24 points adrift of Williams in fifth.
Sainz believes Renault’s eighth spot fails to reflect their ‘strong’ position in F1’s competitive order.
“I’ve been following very closely the progress of Renault this year so I was really looking forward to joining this team because they have developed a lot through the year,” he added.
“They are actually in a strong position now, battling with Force India and getting closer and closer to the top six cars.
“But I have come here without too many intentions but instead focused on being as fast as I can and adapting as best as I can to this car.”
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