Sainz: It's going smoothly so far at McLaren

New McLaren driver Carlos Sainz has revealed how it is going "smoothly" in the early stages of his career at the Woking-based team.

Sainz drove at Renault in 2018, finishing 10th in the drivers' standings - and the Spaniard has now got a new challenge on his hands, after being replaced at the French manufacturer by Daniel Ricciardo.

Lando Norris completes a brand new McLaren line-up for the 2019 season, replacing Stoffel Vandoorne at the team.

Sainz raced in the post-season Abu Dhabi test for McLaren; giving the Spanish driver his first chance to drive in a MCL33.

"It's been an intense three days," Sainz admitted in a McLaren Q&A. "After the race finished in Abu Dhabi, we've been full steam ahead on 2019. I've been learning names of the new colleagues, how the car works, how the system works, also building relationships with the engineers - and that has gone all to plan. Thanks to the 150 laps I did at the test, I can go into the winter break with a lot of information to analyse."

Sainz will have a much different team-mate to Nico Hulkenberg, who he drove with at Renault last season. Norris will be conducting his rookie season in Formula One, and rather than compete with the youngster, Sainz may have to be his mentor.

The Spanish driver has revealed he has already talked to his new team-mate about life at McLaren.

"I saw him drive on Day 1 of the Abu Dhabi test and that helped me to see how the team was operating," Sainz said on Norris. "And then it was my turn, and we have already shared a couple of comments about the car, about the balance, about what we need for next year. It's going smoothly so far."