Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz addressed the rumors of the courting of his services by Renault in Malaysia today, but reaffirmed his commitment to present employer Red Bull.

It is believed that Renault approached Sainz with an offer to join the French squad in 2017, but Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost made clear earlier this week that such a prospect appeared highly unlikely given Red Bull’s vested interest in the Spanish driver.

Sainz, who neither fully denied or confirmed the rumors, said that he was flattered by the interest.

“If there is some discussion going on, then there has been some interest and contacts, which for me is an honour that a manufacturer team is worried about me and wants to know my contractual situation,” Sainz explained.

“As you know, more or less what is going on with Red Bull they guide your career, they paid for 5 years of my junior series, which is millions of euros and I perfectly understand they don’t want to let me go having spent so much money on me and me being in the best moment of my career and then just let me go.

Sainz said his objective in the short term was performing to the best of his ability in the last six races of the season while reiterating his longer term ambition of winning the world championship.

“I don’t want to think about my future when there are 6 important races coming, and because it is not my job to be involved but it is more up to Helmut Marko and my management to sort out that stuff.

“At the moment I have full trust in Toro Rosso that they are going to produce a good chassis for next year because if there was any doubt, Singapore proved Toro Rosso is probably the third or fourth best chassis on the grid.

“As for Renault, I don’t have enough information that they are going to perform next year or if it is going to take 2 years or 3 years.

“My main target and objective is to be fighting for the world championship in 2018 and hopefully that will be with Red Bull.

“That is my main target and I know it is very difficult but the only thing I want is for that to happen and I need to find the shortest way to that point.”

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Fernando Alonso will run an upgraded Honda power unit during Friday practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Honda has spent two tokens on the upgrade, which focuses on the engine block and exhaust, with one token on each area. The update is primarily designed to reduce weight and increase durability, but requires Friday running in order for Honda to gather more data.

With Honda keen to avoid penalties at its home race in Japan next weekend, Alonso will test the upgraded engine on Friday in FP1 before a decision will be taken on whether to run it in FP2. At this stage, Honda is likely to replace the power unit ahead of Saturday’s running, thus allowing Alonso to run it at Suzuka without penalty.

Alonso will receive a 30-place grid penalty this weekend as a result of the power unit change, as he will use a new internal combustion engine (ICE), MGU-H, energy store, turbo and control electronics. The first of these new components carries a ten-place grid penalty, while the other four all result in addition five-place penalties.

Jenson Button is likely to get the upgrade in Austin, with the team not wanting both drivers to take grid penalties at the same race.

Honda still has one power unit development token left to spend this season if required, but does not plan on using any further upgrades before the end of the year.

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Former BRDC President Damon Hill has urged the UK government to step in and provide financial support for the British GP venue, or risk losing one of the country’s greatest showcase events.

Hill actually helped broker the BRDC and Silverstone’s current 17-year deal with Bernie Ecclestone back in 2009.

Following BRDC chairman John Grant’s warning yesterday that the club could be compelled to break its contract with FOM because of the event’s financial burden, the British GP’s future now appears in jeopardy.

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Speaking to Press Association Sport, Hill said: “This is a much-loved national event but, for whatever reason, it has always been very difficult to get additional funding from government.

“Maybe now is the time to look at the British Grand Prix in the context of what is happening elsewhere and realise that it is an extremely good shop window for waving our banner and pointing to our brilliance in this field.

“When you think about post-Brexit Britain, you must wonder if this is exactly the type of thing we need to invest in to show off what we can do.”

Previous attempts to extract a subsidy from central government were often reduced to mere words of encouragement, although local governments have in the past chipped in to help Silverstone’s development.

Hill expressed hope however that F1’s new owner, Liberty Media, could take a look at the event and determine its importance and accept the opportunity of a renegotiation of the contract between the venue and FOM.

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Formula One’s new owners Liberty Media Group are targeting some of Ferrari’s unique perks for competing in the sport, including their guaranteed $100 million annual prize pay-out.

Ferrari is the only team which has competed in the championship ever since it began in 1950, and as a result has built up a number of financial and organisation benefits.

Ferrari receives at least $100 million in prize money each year compared with backmarkers Manor and Sauber who receive only half that amount, according to Forbes business magazine.

But Liberty wants to see a more even playing field in the sport and is aiming to reverse some of the benefits accrued by Ferrari and other top teams in the sport.

• Liberty Media urges teams to have a vested interest in F1

“If you’re Ferrari, you have enormous sponsorship revenue that goes directly to you,” Liberty’s chief executive Greg Maffei said. “That’s going to be impacted more positively by great races.

“So thinking about balancing the team payments, so they’re a little more balanced and creates more fairness, has to be weighed, in Ferrari’s mind, I would expect, by the fact that creating a great platform helps our sponsorship revenue, too, so there’s give-and-take.”

Liberty is also reported to be considering introducing a budget cap to the sport to cap research and development costs.

One unnamed source last month said: “It makes no sense to have teams spending the better part of $400 million. That money is not doing anything good for fans. It is just wasted on competing on technology.”

However Ferrari chief executive Sergio Marchionne came out as opposed to the idea of a cap, saying that previous attempts to restrict spending had been completely ineffective: “We haven’t saved a Euro. We have simply redistributed our spending to other areas.

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Ross Brawn has underlined Sebastian Vettel’s important contribution to Ferrari’s resurgence this season.

Brawn still keeps an attentive eye on the Scuderia’s affairs, not only as Formula 1’s sporting manager but also as the former tech boss and strategist for the red squad during its Schumacher golden era.

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Vettel has won two races so far this season and currently leads Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings.

Following a spell of disappointing seasons marked by Fernando Alonso’s inability to win the world championship, the House of Maranello saw its foundation rocked with several attempts at reorganization.

• Brawn working to avoid F1/MotoGP date clashes

Last year, the team’s new technical structure finally took hold, with Ferrari now bearing the fruit of its efforts.

“The last few years for Ferrari have not been easy,” Brawn said last year.

“But I think the crucial thing for them is stability. There are really good people in the team, who need the right support and the right philosophy.”

With stability now achieved, the team is building on its foundation and Brawn sees Vettel as a vital component of its success.

“What Sebastian is doing in the red car is great advertising for Formula 1,” Brawn told Sport Bild.

“Most fans want to see a successful Ferrari team, and Sebastian is the key to it.”

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Romain Grosjean was the first day’s victim of the treacherous conditions which have drowned the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix and red-flagged the race after 21 laps.

The Haas driver, who had qualified a brilliant seventh,  aquaplaned up the hill and crashed on the exit of the final corner during the formation lap to the grid, resulting in a terminal incident for Haas and the Frenchman.

“I went from hero to zero in 24 hours,” said an obviously disappointed Grosjean.

“I feel so bad the team and the boys. I was going up the hill, not even flat out, and I picked up a lot of wheelspin and just spun the car. It was nothing I could control.”

• LIVE: 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix

Speaking after the race had gotten underway, Grosjean was puzzled to see some of his colleagues switching to intermediate tyres while the downpour continued unabated.

“There’s no grip, so you have to take a huge amount of risk to go to teh extreme because they are just faster. But yoiu can’t control the car in a straight line.”

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Ross Brawn insists his current connection to Liberty Media narrows down to “doing a little consulting” in order to help the new Formula One owners “better understand” the sport.

Rumours about the former Ferrari technical director landing a senior role within the future F1 management have been gaining steam recently. A report in German-language publication Auto Bild Motorsport has even claimed that the 61-year-old has been signed to replace long-standing supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Talking to BBC Sport, Brawn was quick to play down the speculation, though he confirmed the Liberty link.

“Liberty have not got far enough down the road to make any commitments yet,” the former engineer and strategist said. “I’m doing a little consulting to help them better understand F1 but that’s all.”

Liberty agreed to purchase F1 from CVC Capital Partners in a deal which valued the sport at $8bn (£6bn) last September. Since then, newly-appointed chairman Chase Carey has been doing the rounds to meet key paddock figures and explore ways to improve the series, while Ecclestone stayed put as CEO.

The 86-year-old previously claimed that Liberty wanted him to remain at the helm for another three years, though the US group has yet to actually confirm this.

Regarding his future involvement within F1, Brawn also told BBC Sport it “all depends” on what Ecclestone does next.

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Nico Hulkenberg believes 2017 will be another year of work and advancement for Renault as it evolves towards its self-proclaimed goal of joining the head of the F1 grid.

The French manufacturer’s take-over of Lotus at the end of 2015 and its subsequent 2016 campaign led to challenging times for the former world champions.

But it knew from the outset that a move up the ranks was always going to be part of programme spanning several years.

New recruit Hulkenberg, who joined Renault from Force India on a multi-year basis, is expecting more of the same next season.

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“I think next year is still a build-up year. We have to be realistic,” Hulkenberg said.

“This year they come from a pretty difficult year, and obviously when they bought the team last year they were in a very tricky situation, especially at the beginning of the season.

Hulkenberg is setting any specific targets for 2017 in terms of race results, although running consistently in the points is eventually what he’ll be looking for.

“They didn’t do much in terms of development of this car [RS16], so I hope next year is a little bit better already. But I don’t expect to be there in the top six straight away, even top 10 is going to be challenging.

“These things take long – to build an infrastructure back up and get good people back on board and develop the car.”

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2016 team-by-team review: Part two

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Lewis Hamilton’s testing schedule with Pirelli has been cut short after he felt unwell during Tuesday’s running in Abu Dhabi.

The championship runner-up was in the car on Tuesday morning, taking part in Pirelli’s final 2017 tyre test alongside Ferrari and Red Bull at the Yas Marina Circuit. However, with the triple world champion feeling unwell, Pascal Wehrlein was placed on standby by Mercedes.

After completing the early runs on Tuesday, Hamilton then curtailed his time in the car, with Mercedes confirming Wehrlein has replaced him to complete the rest of the day’s schedule.

Tuesday marked Hamilton’s first test of the wider 2017 tyres, with Nico Rosberg and Wehrlein having completed all of the Mercedes testing with Pirelli up to this point.

Hamilton was back in the car just two days after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but losing out in the world champion battle to team-mate Rosberg for the first time.

Daniel Ricciardo is testing for Red Bull on Tuesday, while Kimi Raikkonen is at the wheel for Ferrari as Pirelli concludes its testing schedule ahead of the introduction of new tyre dimensions alongside new aerodynamic regulations in 2017.

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DRIVER RATINGS: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

OPINION: A worthy champion

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