Carlos Sainz has admitted he's still not 100 per cent happy with Renault's 2018 challenger after a mixed collection of results in the opening four races.
Despite securing a fifth-place finish at the last race in Baku, the Spaniard still sits behind team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in the drivers' championship by nine points and has appeared to struggle to match the pace of his team-mate.
The 23-year old has also been beaten by Hulkenberg 4-0 in qualifying; however, he stated he isn't worried about the problem and is dedicated to working with the team to find the solutions which will help him feel more at home in the car.
When asked if he was fully comfortable with the car, Sainz replied: "No. No, definitely not. It’s not 100 per cent confident yet.
"There’s still things to test, things to adapt to, things to make the car be well-suited to me and it’s something that I’m taking a lot of care of, a lot of effort and a lot of timing and it’s coming little by little and sooner or later it will be one hundred per cent."
"If I don’t have full confidence in the car, and don’t have the car well-suited for the qualifying lap time, there’s always going to be tenths around. That’s what I was talking about before. As soon as I will get the balance I like, the car better suited to me, it will just come automatically and I’m definitely not worried."
Sainz joined the team late during the 2017 season from Toro Rosso after Renault decided to drop Jolyon Palmer, meaning he was not fully integrated with the squad's 2018 development programme.
Motorsport Week pressed Sainz on the matter and asked if not being involved with the development of the R.S.18 was a predominant reason for his lack of comfort within the car, Sainz replied: "I think it’s a bit of a combination of both but that at the same time I’m very confident that as soon as I correct a couple of things that I need.
"We’re talking about very small margins. In Formula 1, those very small margins in one qualifying lap they can easily fall for you, so that’s why I’m not worried because it’s very very small, what I need to adapt and what I need from the car.
"As soon as this comes, every piece will fall in."
Discussion about this post