Sainz and Hulkenberg have points to prove - Renault

Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul believes both Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg will have points to prove when racing for his team next year.

With his failure to finish the Singapore Grand Prix, Hulkenberg, who joined Renault at the start of this season, became the driver to start the most Formula 1 races without scoring a podium. For Sainz, a lack of opportunity to be promoted to Red Bull has seen him loaned to Renault for a year, and Abiteboul is excited to pair two highly-rated drivers with so much still to achieve.

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"As far as the drivers are concerned, I think we will have a perfect combination and balance between experience with Nico – lots of seasons – but also something to prove," Abiteboul said. "He's still yet to score a podium and we hope to be able to provide him with a car that's capable of that, starting next year.

"And Carlos, still young, but already lots of experience in a good team, good organization, good academy, three years with Toro Rosso. We can also remember the years that he was against Max Verstappen and actually the gap was not huge. I think everyone sort of wondered ... the decision of Red Bull which obviously I'm not challenging ... of going for Max rather than Carlos, which says something about Carlos's pace and abilities. Also the fact that Red Bull wanted to retain him as a driver and only be prepared to let him go as a loan does say something about the pace of Carlos.

"And he's also not unknown to the family. He was racing with Renault in junior categories. He won Formula Renault 3.5 and Formula Renault 2.0 so it's also to a certain degree some form of a return on something that we have invested in because sometimes people question why Renault is investing so much in these younger categories, and this example is a good example as to why we are doing that."

However, Abiteboul stopped short of setting any targets in terms of results, simply saying he wants to see further progress from Renault toward the front of the field.

"In terms of expectations, maybe it's a bit too early to talk about expectation for 2018, apart from the fact that it has to be a year that we will continue the construction of the team and the progress toward ... from the midfield to the top team. This season is not completely dead. We already have a big job ahead to try and finish better than where we are currently and [fifth place]."

While Jolyon Palmer secured his first top-10 result of the season with an impressive drive to sixth place in Singapore, RACER understands attempts to bring Sainz – who finished fourth on Sunday – to Renault before the end of this season are ongoing.