Sainz "nearly laughed" at FIA engine convergence claims

Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz says he "nearly laughed" after reading the news that the FIA believes that the top three Formula 1 engines are within three tenths of a second of each other.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12

Esteban Ocon, Force India, Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso

Chassis and aero detail of Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1 W08, Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12

The ruling body said on Friday that, having studied the performance of the engines used this year, it had concluded that Mercedes, Fеrrari and Renault have now converged to be within 0.3 seconds.

Sainz, whose Toro Rosso car is powered by Renault, disagreed with the FIA's assessment, saying the difference to Mercedes in qualifying trim is at least half a second.

"I saw news coming out this week about the FIA that the top three engines are within three tenths and I nearly put a comment on Twitter laughing at it," Sainz said after qualifying 11th for the Russian Grand Prix.

"And then [Force India's Sergio] Perez saying 'yes, it's true, it's true'. I nearly laughed at it. I think Max [Verstappen] also nearly laughed.

"We've made progress, Renault has made progress. If not [Nico] Hulkenberg would not be where he is, but we are definitely not closer than half a second compared to Mercedes, especially in qualy.

"In the race it's not that bad, but in qualy the Mercedes engine has half a second or more."

The Spanish driver reckons it is key for his Toro Rosso team to start getting faster quickly if it is not to lose ground to the midfield leaders.

"Hopefully we keep them coming from Barcelona and we start closing the gap because it's starting to get quite tough now with the Williams being easily the fastest team in the midfield," he said. "And Force India with the upgrade from Bahrain is going a lot faster on a circuit that suits them like this one.

"McLaren can easily switch on the [Honda] engine and find one second and be easily in front of you. I look forward to it because I'm positive about what Toro Rosso can do for the upcoming races."

Sainz admitted he was at a loss to explain how the works Renault team manages to perform strongly on Saturdays, after Nico Hulkenberg qualified in the top 10 for the fourth grand prix in a row.

"I have no idea. They must have something with the tyre, with the chassis that they can put over a qualy lap that probably is not helping in the long runs, because in the long runs they are nothing special," he said.