Move to top team 'just a matter of time' - Sainz

Carlos Sainz believes it is "just a matter of time" before a top team comes in for him if he keeps up his current form.

Following Max Verstappen's promotion to Red Bull, Sainz has impressed for Toro Rosso with a sixth place in Barcelona following by an eighth in Monaco. The latter race saw Sainz in with a chance of the podium and he is confident repeat performances could secure his future.

"I am feeling positive," Sainz said. "There has been a good couple of races and I have good vibrations and we have some good things coming our way.

"Whenever I speak with Red Bull they are very happy with me and happy with Toro Rosso, it is just a matter of time before an opportunity comes up at a top team. I say it because I really believe it, if I keep doing what I am doing soon an opportunity will come."

While the upcoming races in Canada, Azerbaijan and Austria are not expected to suit Toro Rosso, Sainz is not giving up hope of a headline result in the next rounds.

"I think we still have a couple of races before the summer, Silverstone and Hungary, which can play to our strengths. It is true for me the best opportunity was in Monaco. We lost a big, big chance of scoring a podium there with a bad pit stop but it is nothing we can do now. We learn from it and we have analysed.

"We all know we lost a podium there. Slow pit stop on the front right. We had a 22-second gap to [Sebastian] Vettel and the group stuck behind [Felipe] Massa and I was P3 at that point so it was a free stop if we had a normal 21-second pit stop. We would have exited third but is it forgotten. Maybe if it rains on Sunday we will have another chance."

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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.