Sainz eyes ’top three teams’ for future

Carlos Sainz has hinted he would like to drive for one of the three top teams in 2018.

The Spaniard was linked strongly with a move to Renault for this year, but Red Bull elected to hold him to his contract with Toro Rosso.

Now, El Pais newspaper said the 22-year-old has made comments in Bahrain that are designed to "attract the attention of a large team".

Sainz was speaking amid a difficult weekend mired by reliability problems in Bahrain.

"The three top teams are in another league. I don’t even look at them as it would be stupid," he said.

"That you cannot even consider fighting with them is a joke in bad taste. It’s frustrating, although if I was with one of them I would not mind," added Sainz.