Carlos Sainz says his goal is to impress his bosses and win a promotion to Red Bull’s senior team.
"I know what I need to do to impress them," he said on Tuesday in a meeting with the Spanish media.
"My goal is still to go to Red Bull and become the best driver and a world champion," added the 21-year-old.
It seems a difficult task for Sainz, however, given the hype surrounding his fellow rookie and Toro Rosso teammate, Max Verstappen.
"Well," said Sainz when asked about the Dutch sensation, "Max did only three more overtakes than I did all season. Yet it feels like his were on TV more than mine were.
"But I did many other good and spectacular things that were not on TV but the team saw them. The telemetry, the numbers don’t lie," he insisted.
So even when Verstappen is called a ’new Senna’, Sainz says he is not overly worried.
"If he is the new Senna and I beat him, then what am I?" he smiled.
"I don’t think too much about what the press says. When I hear what Horner, Marko, Alonso or Vettel says then I am calm, because the people who know see what I do."
But the risk remains that Red Bull will want to promote one of its newer stars, like new reserve Pierre Gasly, for 2017, leaving one of the current Toro Rosso drivers out in the cold.
"It is true that the pressure is higher now," Sainz admitted, "but my career has been like that since 2014. Every year, it is all or nothing.
"Now that I know the best in F1, I know what I have to improve and how," he added.