Sainz keen to gain McLaren advice from Alonso

With Carlos Sainz taking his good friend and fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso's place at McLaren next season, Carlos Sainz has acknowledged that he will be asking Alonso about the ins and outs of the British team before he departs there.

Sainz was initially pushed out at Renault to make place for Daniel Ricciardo, who has been signed for two years from 2019 onwards next to Nico Hülkenberg. However, when Alonso announced his retirement from F1 last week, it only took a few days for McLaren to reach out to Sainz and sign him to replace Alonso from next season, meaning he won't be left without a seat next year.

Speaking on his contact with Alonso about taking over from him next season, there wasn't much Sainz could report yet.

“We’ve both been on holidays so because of that there hasn’t been much of a contact,”  he admitted at the Gamma Racing Day at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands.

“But apart from that of course when it comes to Spa I will talk with him and will start having conversations with him about next year and how to approach the year. 

"And for sure he will let me know the people there and all that, he will give me good contacts.”

He also wasn't able to make any predictions for next season, as he hasn't seen the product yet with the current season still going on.

"I don’t know, because I haven’t been in touch with the factory yet.

“I haven’t been in touch with the people there. 

"I just have been in touch with the management - obviously the management is positive and I am very positive about the project.

“But until I get inside the project and start talking with the engineers, and anything like that, I won’t be able to judge that.”