Sainz: McLaren comparing itself to frontrunners, not midfield

Carlos Sainz says that McLaren is not looking to compare their race pace with their midfield rivals, and that in order to improve the team must compare themselves with the frontrunning teams of Mercedes and Ferrari.

Having just achieved McLaren's first double points finish of 2019 with Sainz in seventh and Norris in eighth place, Sainz acknowledges that the team still have work to do.

"Pretty much in every area, I think we need to improve. Because we look at Mercedes, we see where they are, we look at Ferrari, and then you look at the data and you see that every area of the car needs to be improved." 

Sainz added: "If we compare ourselves against the midfield, then we only need to improve in little areas to come on top. But we are not comparing ourselves against that. We are comparing ourselves to a car that is a second quicker at the moment than us.

McLaren currently sit 4th in the constructor's championship with 18 points, a long way behind first placed Mercedes with 173. McLaren has won the constructor's championship 8 times in the past, with 12 drivers' championship's to their name.

In Baku, Sainz managed his first points finish of the season after reliability issues and accidents compromised his previous races: "On a personal level, this one is a bit of a relief after three races where I had exactly the same pace.

"I had it, but just for a reason that I still don't understand three consecutive runs of bad luck happened to us. We finally didn't have any issues and we just demonstrated what we are capable of doing."