Carlos Sainz believes the Renault engine can now compete with their rivals in terms of performance.

The French manufacturer claimed to have made strong gains with an all-new power unit for 2019 after the development of their previous concept fell short of expectations last year.

And the Spaniard, who raced for the Renault works outfit in 2018 and now drives for customer team McLaren, is feeling a difference to start the new season.

“I feel a step in the right direction," he told Motorsport.com. “I still think we are a bit behind the Ferrari and Mercedes engines, but it definitely feels like we have something to fight with now, finally.

“I have done four years in Formula 1 and all four years has been 10km/h down on all the straights.

“So finally, to be turning up to Melbourne and to be just 2/3km/h down maybe on the top teams, is a really, really encouraging scenario."

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The big question now is reliability with Sainz retiring early on in Melbourne after an MGU-K failure, but the former Red Bull junior believes that will come in time.

“They seem to have clear ideas of how to develop the engine during the year so that gives some positive vibes also," he continued.

“I would praise Renault in that sense because it finally seems like they’ve done the step that we were needing two years ago.”