Vasseur: Sainz is a very interesting driver for the future

Renault team boss Frederic Vasseur has admitted that Carlos Sainz is a very interesting prospect for the future

Crucially, as the speculation reached all the way to the ear of Vasseur, the Frenchman did not take the opportunity to issue a denial.

"The first thing we would need to know is his contractual situation," he told another Spanish daily, Marca. "But he is a very interesting driver for the future."

The first sign of the French marque's interest was comments made a few days ago by F1 legend Alain Prost, who is an ambassador and advisor to the works Renault team.

"I would like to see how he (Sainz) develops in a top team," the quadruple world champion had told the French-language Minute-Auto.fr.

Amid the reports, Fernando Alonso's manager Luis Garcia Abad agreed that 21-year-old Sainz is one of the rising stars of F1.

"I recently read an article on the performance of Sainz and Verstappen and it was very similar," Garcia Abad told the Spanish sports daily AS in Montreal.

"The difference between the two was a phone call (from Red Bull)," he added, referring to Helmut Marko's decision to promote Verstappen to the senior team.

"He (Sainz) has maturity, talent and a desire to take his chance, and he is going to get that chance," Garcia Abad, whose charge Alonso is a close friend of Sainz's, said.