Sainz denies he was forced out of Red Bull by Verstappen

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Carlos Sainz insists that joining McLaren in 2019 is the right move for him - and says he didn't believe rumours that his way to the Red Bull race seat had been blocked by Max Verstappen.

Media reports suggested that the Dutch driver had vetoed Sainz as a prospective team mate after Daniel Ricciardo announced that he was off to Renault. The pair had previously raced alongside each other at Toro Rosso.

But Sainz said such suggestions were absurd.

"I don't know where that comes from, because Max is one of the drivers I have the best relationship with in the paddock," Sainz told Dutch publication Formule 1. "He would never do that."

Sainz has been on loan to Renault this season, and next year starts a multi-year deal driving for McLaren.

"I think it's the right place for me at the right time," Sainz said of his upcoming move to Woking. "The team is being rebuilt and everything is focused on getting back to the front.

"I have a contract for two years, but the intention is to stay longer and achieve successes together."

"I can only be grateful to Red Bull for giving me the opportunity to reach Formula 1 and drive for different teams," he said. The fact that I didn't end with a Red Bull seat does not mean that it will never happen."

The question of who will be driving alongside Sainz at McLaren next season is still wide open, with Stoffel Vandoorne looking likely to lose his seat.

In fact rumours have been sweeping that paddock that Vandoorne might be bundled out of the line-up even sooner, with some speculation that he wouldn't even be in the car for his home race this weekend in Spa.

But such talk was firmly scotched by Vandoorne's manager, Alessandro Alunni Bravi.

"Stoffel will drive in Spa and until the end of the season. There's no doubt about that," Bravi told La Derniere Heure newspaper. However he said nothing about his driver's 2019 prospects.

If Vandoorne were to be dropped then the front runner to take over from him would be the team's test and development driver Lando Norris, who has been handed his first FP1 outing with the team this Friday.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.