Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul fears the team may have to let go off Carlos Sainz as a ‘collateral consequence’ following Red Bull Racing’s decision of switching to Honda power unit from the 2019 Formula 1 season.
Sainz was loaned to Renault for handful of races in the 2017 F1 season and a full 2018 to offset the partition of Toro Rosso and Renault, for the Italian outfit to switch to Honda in the current year.
This allowed McLaren to pair up with Renault. With Red Bull now deciding to use Honda units from the 2019 season, the agreement done last year between Red Bull and Renault regarding Sainz may come to an end, especially if Red Bull loses Daniel Ricciardo.
The Australian is yet to decide on his future. But should he move away, Red Bull might then take in Sainz to partner with Max Verstappen in 2019 and beyond. “We have in Nico and Carlos a very strong line-up,” started Renault’s Abiteboul.
“I am extremely pleased with the way that they are developing together. They are performing and they are also driving the team and building the team. For the time being it’s a bit early to talk about the future.
“Obviously we have a particular situation with Carlos, in the sense that he on a loan to us from Christian and Red Bull. So we have to see. We can say that it is unconnected to engine decisions but it’s not.
“Frankly, Carlos was loaned to us because of all the musical chairs that happened last year, so it was part of that agreement. So I expect that there will be some collateral consequences and that’s something that frankly we are here to discuss with Red Bull and I’m pretty sure that we will discuss that in the next few weeks.
“We need to watch out for any driver development from Red Bull’s side first and the collateral consequences that it may have on us. For the time being our focus is on developing the best car possible.
“If we show that we can progress, if we show that we can build a good car, drivers will get interested in joining us. We have to focus on that first and foremost,” he explained. The interest for Ricciardo is high as McLaren is also believed to be in the frame.
Of course, the first priority for Ricciardo lies with Red Bull, however, if Fernando Alonso does leave McLaren, the seat may become lucrative from financial point of view. Ricciardo though has stressed his decision will be driven by a title-winning car more.
“It’s obviously this time of year that you start to think about your driver line-up for the following year or following years,” said McLaren’s Eric Boullier. “Obviously we love Daniel, I personally have known him for many, many years.
“He is doing a good job with Red Bull. As long as a driver of that calibre is on the market you look if there is any discussion possible but at this time of year it’s still too early to talk about our driver line-up for the future, so just a normal, gentle discussion.”
While Abiteboul expects some consequences, but if Ricciardo stays on with Red Bull, he may well get to keep Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg together albeit at a higher price for the former. And Christian Horner has every intention to keep Ricciarda in his ranks.
“Look, the situation with Daniel, I think that there is an intent from both sides to move forward,” he said. “The first thing was to close the situation with the engine. That has now been done. Daniel understands the rationale, the engineering rationale, behind that.
“Let’s not forget that he has been in a car that in the last couple of grands prix has been lapping the cars to our left. So it would be a fairly bold decision to step out of a car that he has won two grands prix in this year as a championship contender.
“I would be surprised if he was to leave, because it’s a good fit between himself and Red Bull, but it is Formula 1. I think things are going in the right direction. [In anycase] we have talent already on the books on loan to Cyril.
“We have not a shortage of requests from outside of our own contracted drivers. Obviously the cars are performing extremely well, so there’s no shortage of demand from drivers that want to be in the car for next year but our priority is to retain the same driver line-up for the next couple of years.”
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