Renault have admitted their interest in signing up Carlos Sainz for 2017.
The first sign of the French marque's interest was comments made a few days ago by Formula 1 legend Alain Prost, who is an ambassador and advisor to the works Renault team.
"I would like to see how [Sainz] develops in a top team," the quadruple world champion had told the French-language Minute-Auto.fr.
Amid the rumours those comments triggered, Fernando Alonso's manager Luis Garcia Abad agreed that 21-year-old Sainz is one of the rising stars of F1.
"I recently read an article on the performance of Sainz and Verstappen and it was very similar," Garcia Abad told Spanish sports daily AS in Montreal.
"The difference between the two was a phone call [from Red Bull]," he added, referring to Dr Helmut Marko's decision to promote Verstappen to the senior team.
"[Sainz] has maturity, talent and a desire to take his chance, and he is going to get that chance."
As the rumour reached all the way to the Renault team boss Frederic Vasseur, the Frenchman did not take the opportunity to issue a denial.
"The first thing we would need to know is his contractual situation," he told Marca. "But he is a very interesting driver for the future."
The 2016 championship continues on Sunday with the European Grand Prix.
