Carlos Sainz opens up on his relationship with Lando Norris at McLaren

F1 News

20 August 2019 at 10:34
  • Bobby Vincent

McLaren driver Carlos Sainz has spoken about his relationship with his team-mate Lando Norris, revealing the two "clicked" immediately after meeting.

The resurgence of McLaren this season has been one of the many positive points to come out of this 2019 Formula 1 season. This has been largely down to Sainz and Norris' strong performances on-track, but it must be a bit down to how they get on off-track as well.

"Just like with other people, you also have people in F1 with whom you get along well with and people with whom it doesn't click," the Spanish driver said to Motorsport.com.

"With Lando, it clicked immediately during the winter and during the first weekends, and that has only grown. If you fight for a world title, then of course this won't make the relationship any better, but if you're fighting for eighth or ninth place, you can get along more.

"That is of course possible, but as soon as we are on the track, we are just each other's rivals."

At 24-years-old, Sainz is one of the youngest drivers on the Formula 1 grid. The Spaniard entered Formula 1 with Max Verstappen, who is 21, but despite being a bit older than the Dutchman, the McLaren man is still feeling fresh and young.

"I don't necessarily feel older," Sainz said. "I think (Charles) Leclerc, Verstappen, (Esteban) Ocon, (Daniil) Kvyat and myself are just the same generation. Perhaps not in terms of age, but we do feel the same and from a different generation than (Sebastian) Vettel, (Daniel) Ricciardo and (Nico) Hulkenberg."