McLaren have already picked Fernando Alonso's replacement - report

Carlos Sainz Jr will be confirmed as Fernando Alonso's replacement at McLaren, ESPN have reported. Sainz had been strongly linked to the team before Alonso confirmed he would not race in Formula 1 in 2019, and his switch will also free up Red Bull to hire Pierre Gasly alongside Max Verstappen.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has made little secret of his admiration for Sainz in recent weeks and said after the Hungarian Grand Prix: "We think Carlos is an excellent race car driver.

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We are gonna we miss you a lot @alo_oficial ! My passion for this sport started thanks to you and I consider myself a very lucky guy to have shared 4 years of f1 racing with one of the best ever. Time to keep profiting from the 2nd half of the season! pic.twitter.com/I1PEmn19Qq — Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) August 14, 2018

"Carlos is potentially on the market.

"I don't know his exact situation at Renault and Red Bull, but he is certainly someone, when you go down the shortlist of drivers that you consider putting in your race car if he was free.

"If we had a seat, he would certainly be high up on our consideration list."

Now that McLaren do have a seat available for next year, it appears that Sainz will indeed be the one to fill it, with ESPN reporting that the 23-year-old will sign a two-year deal.

McLaren have also been linked with the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen in recent weeks, and Stoffel Vandoorne is by no means safe in the other side of the McLaren garage.

Having been out-qualified by Alonso in all 12 races so far in 2018, Brown has laid a challenge down to the Belgian to prove his worth in the closing months of the campaign.

A report in Belgium last week suggested that he may be out of the team as early as next week's grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps - with Lance Stroll's potential switch to Force India following his father's takeover of the team setting of a chain reaction of other driver moves.