Carlos Sainz plans to use Renault experience at McLaren

Carlos Sainz believes embellishments from Renault will come to his aid at McLaren next season. The Spaniard comes in, replacing fellow-countryman Fernando Alonso, following his own dumping by Renault in favour of Daniel Ricciardo.

Sainz completed his first full-year at Renault in 2018 by climbing up to 10th in the drivers' standings on the final day of the season.

McLaren is taking a fresh approach in 2019 with a magnitude of different projects in the pipeline. But focusing on the main task at hand, Sainz is confident he'll be able to use Renault experience to give McLaren the boost they need.

"Moving to Renault has been a great experience for me and going to a team like McLaren with similar resources is going to help me. This year of experience, also getting to know myself, because I only knew the Carlos of Toro Rosso, what he liked in a Toro Rosso, is what I needed as a driver," Sainz told Autosport.

"[I took] the good things of Toro Rosso, try and apply them in the Renault, and kept the good things from Renault and tried to nurse them together with the Toro Rosso ones. There's a lot of stuff going on that you can do as a driver, and the amount of learning that I've done this year is something that I'm taking into McLaren."

Sainz has already driven the papaya orange car in the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test and will look forward to revealing their 2019 challenger in just under a months time.