Carlos Sainz has suggested that Toro Rosso may be the team with the least amount of horse power on the grid.

Although the Faenza team switched from struggling Renault power for 2016, Mercedes's Paddy Lowe said recently that he actually thinks Ferrari's 2015-specification engine is producing the least amount of power in Formula 1 this year.

"I worry a bit that he says that," Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz told Spanish reporters in China, "but I think that even if it is not exactly true now, it will be by mid to late in the season.

"Both Honda and Renault have taken a very important step and I think that by the end of the year we will be behind them."

It is impressive, therefore, that most see Toro Rosso as being in the group with Red Bull and Williams that are fighting for the places behind the big two teams.

Sainz explained: "I think this year the differences between the best and the worst engine are not as great as they were last year.

"If last year the difference was 14 or 15kph, this year it is six or seven."

Sainz was seventh and eighth respectively in today's practice sessions ahead of Sunday's race.