Sainz 'a bit more comfortable' after Toro Rosso changes

Carlos Sainz admits he is "a bit more comfortable" at Toro Rosso following the recent change in driver line-up and team members.

Max Verstappen has been promoted to Red Bull, with Helmut Marko citing "considerable unrest" between the former Toro Rosso team-mates as one of the reasons for the driver change. Verstappen's race engineer Xevi Pujolar also left Toro Rosso ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix and Sainz admits he has started to sense a difference in atmosphere as a result of the recent changes within the team.

"It’s a bit too early to say because the changes have been done within a week," Sainz said. "I must say that I’ve always felt comfortable with Toro Rosso but maybe now it’s a bit easier or I’m a bit more comfortable than I was before.

"There’s definitely a good atmosphere in the team I think everyone is working in the same direction and hopefully we can keep going that way."

While new team-mate Daniil Kvyat says he will need an extra day in the car to feel fully comfortable again, Sainz says he does not see the situation as an opportunity to establish himself as the team leader.

"For me in F1, with the level of drivers there are here, there’s not many team leaders out there. I wouldn’t mind being one for sure but I don’t feel like that and I don’t think they need me to be one. I think they have two drivers that are really good and came lead the team together. We can both be good."

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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.