Carlos Sainz believes Racing Point and ꦦAlphaTauri could be the “most dangerou🌳s” teams for McLaren to beat during the 2020 Formula 1 season.

Both Racing Po𝓰int and AlphaTauri enjoyed strong pre-season tests at Barcelona, with Racing Po𒈔int’s Mercedes-inspired RP20 causing a particular stir among the midfield teams as Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll set some eye-catching laptimes.

McLaren is looking to build upon its fourth place finish in the 2019 constructo🗹rs’ championship and Sainz has pinpointed Racing Point and AlphaTauri as the two teams that he feels could emerge as the Woking out💮fit’s biggest threat this year.

“Everyone is look♐ing strong,” Sainz said when assessing the performance of the 𒁏midfield pack.

“Every single team you look at🍒, at some point in the test, they have done a very strong lap time, so it’s difficult to know who is at the front of the midfield or behind.

“The Racing Point or eve🐼n AlphaTauri, I would put as the most dangerous guys to beat.

“I think we will all be in the mix, What I hope is all of us are꧅ closer to the top than we were last year. That would be my biggest wish, independent of the position.

“I wish the midfield this year could be close enough to the leaders to make sure ifꦉ the leaders have an accident in lap one, that they don’t move through the field, that would be my biggest thing, to close up the gap, which at the moment is difficult to know.”

Asked if McLaren has a clear picture of where it stands compared to its rivals, Sainz replied: “No, the team doesn’t have a clꦉear picture of how far we are from t▨he top three, but we will see in FP1, FP2, when we are on same fuel loads more or less, we will see how it is.

“The mi🌊dfield, the Racing Point have been very quick, the whole tw🌺o weeks. They hit the track and they did a 73, and since then, they haven’t improved much.

“But 73 on the first day impressed all of us, and they are going to be quick, very quick. 10kg is three or four tenths quicker, you say it’s tight with Racing Point or AlphaTauri, if they are 10kg heavier or lighter, th⭕ree or four tenths they are sandbagging.

“So it’s impossible to take a conclusion,” he a♋dded. “Who has the last three tenths in their pocket o🐻r who has used it, that’s why it is impossible to know.

“I think th🐻ere are still differences in how teams are running in fuel loads and eng🐻ine modes and we need to take that into account.

“We cannot make t𝔉oo many conclusions, we need to keep⛎ analysing ourselves, we’re doing a pretty good job in dissecting our performance levels in different sectors and trying things to make it better.”