With Formula One’s ‘silly season’ seemingly in full swing and rumours circulating about Daniel Ricciardo’s future at Red Bull Racing, Carlos Sainz Junior has stated his desire to fight for the 2018 world championship in Red Bull colours.
Sainz has enjoyed a strong start to 2017 and is rumoured to be courted by several teams on the grid. Indeed, Sainz has been linked to the likes of Scuderia Ferrari should the Italian outfit not renew Kimi Raikkonen’s current contract and Renault Sport F1 if the team can’t secure Fernando Alonso’s signature for next season.
However, rumours have emerged that link Daniel Ricciardo to the potentially vacant seat at Ferrari. If that moves comes off, Sainz has expressed his desire to step up into Red Bull’s ‘A team’ for 2018 with an eye on challenging for the world title.
“Ideally I want to fight for a world championship [in 2018], I want to have the chance to show everyone that I’m able to fight for a world championship,” he told Crash.net.
“Red Bull knows this, I’ve told them, they know it perfectly, and I think if I keep bringing home good results the opportunity will come, and hopefully it will come with Red Bull, this is my target and this is what I’m looking for.”
As ‘silly season’ develops and the pieces of the 2018 puzzle begin to fall into place however, Sainz is continuing to focus on his current task of ensuring Toro Rosso maintains its current fifth place in the constructor’s standings.
“My target is P5 in the constructors’ championship at least, that’s the target of Toro Rosso, it’s been the target for the past three seasons, and from there we will see. Personally, getting in the points whenever I finish a race and keep this run of consistency that I’m having now.
“I’m obviously really happy with how these first races have gone. Particularly with the early points, particularly with Monaco especially, that was a big weekend for me. It hasn’t been as easy as it looks, sometimes we’ve struggled to qualify in the top 12, even in the top 10 compared to last year – it’s a lot tighter to get in there.
“We have to do a lot of races coming a bit from the back, but still we’ve managed to get the points. The team has improved a lot in pit stop strategy, so it’s helping.”
