If Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul had gotten his way in June, Carlos Sainz would have signed for the French team permanently but the Spaniard's paymasters - Red Bull - stubbornly refused to release him while remaining blind to Daniel Ricciardo being poached from them.
Asked by reporters at Suzuka why Sainz was overlooked, Abiteboul replied, "I think we felt like there was something between Renault and Carlos, and it's a bit weird because, in the end, this allowed us to sign Ricciardo more easily."
"It was easier to reach an agreement with Daniel than with Carlos because clearly, Red Bull was blocking our attempt to sign an extension of our agreement with Sainz.
"Honestly, if Red Bull had a less tough position on Carlos, the final result would have been different: after the French Grand Prix we pushed to try to confirm Carlos, but Red Bull did not want to take this step.
"They had the right to do that, but that strangely led them to lose Ricciardo. Surely it was not what they would have expected, but [Ricciardo] is the result of their hard opposition to letting us continue with Carlos the moment we were interested in doing so," added Abiteboul.
Sainz might have expected a call up to the Red Bull team, but it became evident that Helmut Marko was not keen to partner the Spaniard with Max Verstappen and they released him to McLaren.
In 2019 Sainz will share a garage with Lando Norris, while Nico Hulkenberg welcomes Ricciardo to the team.
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