Carlos Sainz Jr. aims to continue a “great start” to life with the Renault Sport Formula One Team, after taking a strong seventh place finish at Austin in his first start with the team.
Replacing the departing Jolyon Palmer for the United States Grand Prix, Sainz battled with the Sahara Force India F1 Team duo of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez in the lower half of the points – Sainz finishing behind the sixth-placed Ocon in his first race after leaving Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Praising his new team’s ability to get him up to speed, Sainz hopes that he can continue to build on the excellent opening to his Renault career.
“It felt great,” Sainz said of his debut with Renault. “I took it easy at the start to ease in and I was getting more and more confident as the weekend progressed.
“We really had good fun, especially in the race.
“To bring home six points is really good, [and] the team did a brilliant job of easing me into things – our first weekend was close to perfect and we need to keep going like that.”
Looking forward to the Mexican Grand Prix, Sainz hailed the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit as “one of [his] favourites”, and paid tribute to the “special” atmosphere generated by the fans in Mexico.
“It’s one of my favourite race weekends and a lot of us drivers really enjoy it. We really feel the heat of the crowd there; it’s very special and feels different to any other race.
“You get a good feeling for the atmosphere on the track parade, especially when you say ‘hi’ to more than 200,000 people, which is pretty special.
“You really see the passion of the fans and their love for Formula 1. As a driver, we love seeing this passion and you know it will be special weekend.
“The stadium is really cool, but even away from that section the grandstands are always packed!”
