Sainz heads for Renault after disappointing Toro Rosso farewell
Tuesday 17 October 2017 17:10, UK
Carlos Sainz believes he can hit the ground running with Renault from the next race in the United States as he leaves Toro Rosso for their Enstone rivals.
Sainz is taking over Jolyon Palmer's seat from the next race with Renault succeeding in bringing the Spaniard to the team three months earlier than planned.
Friday practice in Austin will be the first time Sainz will have driven his new team's car but the Spaniard is optimistic he can get a handle on it quickly.
"It's going to be a big challenge to try and adapt to this new car," Sainz told Sky Sports F1.
"It's quite late into the season and it's going to take some time and to find my way around it. But I'm there to do a job and I'm confident I can do it pretty straight away."
Despite a grid penalty leaving him on the back row of the grid for Sunday's Japanese GP, Sainz had hoped to finish his successful three-year Toro Rosso stint with a flourish - but crashed out within six corners.
The 23-year-old said he had to gamble in an attempt to move up the order, but was caught out by the lack of grip on the outside of Suzuka's Esses.
"In a one-stop race you need to risk at the start and I was trying my best to gain some positions," he added.
"It didn't work, I definitely found a lot less grip than I was expecting there, there was a lot of dust and I simply lost the car.
"There's no excuse and I say sorry to them [the team] because it's not the way we wanted to finish, but in life if you want to risk and do something special sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't."
Neither Toro Rosso nor Renault scored points at Suzuka, meaning Sainz's old team still have a 10-point advantage over his new one in the Constructors' Championship. But Renault have slipped to eighth place behind Haas after both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished in the points for the American outfit.
