Carlos Sainz says McLaren are more confident than 12 months ago

Carlos Sainz says that his McLaren team are in a more confident mood than they were this time last year after a positive time at pre season testing. McLaren had their best season for a while in 2019, finishing fourth thanks to Sainz's incredible season.

The Spaniard got his first ever F1 podium in the penultimate race of the 2019 season in Brazil and will be eyeing more strong results as they look to move away from the midfield and closer to the top three teams.

McLaren showed good pace in Barcelona but will be wary of the threat coming from Racing Point, with Sainz also mentioning Alpha Tauri as another competitor to lead the midfield.

According to motorsport.com, Sainz said: “We’ve added some good downforce to the car and we’re happier than we were 12 months ago. The car feels much better, especially in sector one and two we’re very well balanced.

“The last sector today looked at bit better but still our weakness and something that we need to be working on as a team.  I think there’s still differences in how teams are running in fuel loads or in engine modes and we need to take that into account.

“We cannot take too many conclusions, we need to keep analysing ourselves, and I think we we’re doing a pretty good job on dissecting our performance levels in different sectors and trying things to make it better."