McLaren is determined to pull itself up from "rock bottom" in 2019.
That is the claim of Carlos Sainz, the world rally legend. His son, 24-year-old Spaniard Sainz jr, is switching from Renault to the beleaguered Woking team next year.
Sainz senior thinks his son did well with Renault this year.
"At the beginning it was difficult for Carlos to understand the car," he told Movistar.
"He did not feel comfortable, and it's when you are comfortable that you can get that last tenth or tenth and a half."
56-year-old Sainz thinks his son did better at the end of the year, but is now hopeful he will shine in an orange car in 2019.
That is despite the fact that McLaren hit "rock bottom" this year.
"Everyone thought that with the Renault engine at least they would be ahead of the official Renault team and it has not been that way," he said.
"But I sincerely believe that there are capable people at McLaren. It is a team capable of reacting after a year where I want to think they hit rock bottom.
"There are people there who have said 'It was not the engine, we've done things wrong and it's enough now. We're going to start doing things right for next year'," Sainz snr added.
