Renault starting contract talk with Sainz

Renault have began contract talks with on-loan Red Bull driver Carlos Sainz, in the event that he is released by the Milton Keynes based team.

Renault find themselves in a difficult situation as it does not have first grabs on Sainz, who may be brought back to Red Bull should Daniel Ricciardo decide to move on.

However, in case Sainz is to stay Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul has began talking to the Spaniard about his future, saying:

"We have in my opinion still two great drivers, but obviously we have a particular situation with Carlos, which is a contract where we are exposed for next year, and we knew that since day one.

"That's why we need to start thinking way in advance about what could be the situation.

"And frankly, that is why we have already started discussion with Carlos about longer term, about what can happen beyond this year, accepting that it's not completely in his hands nor our hands.

"It is not a super comfortable situation to be in, but we need to accept that we are still playing catch up on many areas and one of the areas is also driver market, where we still need to try to be more in control of our future and of our destiny."