Sainz warns Renault: "We need to be very careful with Force India"

Despite Force India getting stripped of all their points during the summer break, Renault's Carlos Sainz still warns his team to be "very careful" of them in the fight for fourth place in the constructors' championship.

Renault currently sit in fourth place, beating Haas in fifth by 15 points and McLaren in sixth by 31 points. Force India, who started from scratch from Belgium onwards, are in seventh, accumulating 32 points already in their first three races. Well, in the first two races really, as both Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez didn't score any points in Singapore last weekend.

“Our target was to finish fourth in the Constructors’ and if it was not for the penalty they suffered [the points reset], they would be ahead of us by pure performance,” Sainz admitted to PlanetF1.

“We need to be very careful with Force India.

“We know that in the second half of the season they always start to come alive and they’ve proved it once more – once they’ve got a bit of money and everything.

“A track like Singapore where we expected to be ahead, we’re behind.”

Despite Force India not scoring points in Singapore, the Pink Panthers were indeed much quicker than Renault all weekend long, out-qualifying them by quite a big margin.

A collision between Pérez and Ocon saw the Frenchman retiring, however, and Pérez's antics with Sergey Sirotkin cost him as well.

“We know our car is strong in low-speed corners," Sainz continued.

“We generate quite a lot of grip and load in low-speed, but we know our ride through kerbs and bumps is not where it should be compared with other teams.

“We keep working on it but it’s probably still our main point.”