Sainz: Renault 'evolution' will help at McLaren

Carlos Sainz believes that his evolution at Renault will help him throughout his first year at McLaren. The Spaniard will race for the struggling Woking squad alongside rookie Lando Norris in 2019.

Sainz spent just over a year with Renault, joining them for the final four races of the 2017 season. He then stayed for the 2018 season, doing his part to ensure it finished the season fourth in the constructors' championship.

But now as he takes on a new challenge with McLaren, the Spaniard is keen to apply the personal gains he achieved at Renault: "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.

"This year of experience, also getting to know myself, because I only knew the Carlos of Toro Rosso, what he liked in a Toro Rosso, is what I needed as a driver.

"[I took] the good things of Toro Rosso, try and apply them in the Renault, and kept the good things from Renault and tried to nurse them together with the Toro Rosso ones. There's a lot of stuff going on that you can do as a driver, and the amount of learning that I've done this year is something that I'm taking into McLaren."

Sainz added that working with a works team after spending almost three years at Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso gave him valuable insight into how different operations go about their business.

"That's why I give some kudos to Renault," said Sainz. "They've helped me in that way, every time I was asking for something, they were writing it down and see if they could do something about it.

"As a driver, it's a privilege to see that a team really wants you to feel comfortable here and to bring the best they can to you. We've evolved as a team, they've helped me to evolve, and I've helped them to evolve. So, it's been a whole coordinated process that I think we both should be proud of."