Carlos Sainz has built a good professional and personal relationship with McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Getty Images
Carlos Sainz has built a good professional and personal relationship with McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Getty Images
Carlos Sainz has built a good professional and personal relationship with McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Getty Images
Carlos Sainz has built a good professional and personal relationship with McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Getty Images

Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz aim to keep 'good relationship' going as McLaren enter new F1 season full of optimism


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McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz were in jovial spirits at the launch of their new MCL35 Formula One car on Thursday.

The British-based team emerged from the doldrums to finish fourth in the constructors' standings last season and, in the 50th anniversary year of the death of founder Bruce McLaren, are aiming to build on that momentum.

Norris, a rookie last year as Britain's youngest F1 driver, and Spaniard Sainz both liked what they saw as the Renault-powered car was pushed out at the Woking factory.

"I pretty much designed the whole thing," Norris said, jokingly. "Everything we went through last year, all our comments and discussions between us as drivers has been put into this and based around that.

"It's a lot more my car, we've had the input into making this, so it feels a lot more my baby."

Sainz, the more experienced of the two at 25 years old and heading into his sixth season, said it looked slimmer and better: "I like it. I like it a lot," he said of the livery with its matt finish.

The two drivers hit it off last year, their friendly rivalry on and off track providing plenty of entertainment for the team's fans, and they made clear they expected that to continue.

"We managed to develop a good relationship with each other but also a good working relationship inside the team," said Sainz, who last year took McLaren's first podium since 2014 with an inherited third place in Brazil.

Norris, 20, said he was more confident, more relaxed, in his second season.

"Especially working with Carlos, there's a lot of things I had to improve on and work on," he said of 2019. "It's been good. It's made it a lot more fun, especially in my first year in Formula One.

"I've been able to settle into things a lot quicker than I thought I would and a lot of that's been down to Carlos and how we got along and helped each other. It's been a lot of fun and I hope to continue that way."

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SPECS
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How to wear a kandura

Dos

  • Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion 
  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
  • Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work 
  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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MEDIEVIL%20(1998)
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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if you go

Getting there

Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.

Staying there

On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.

More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

MATCH INFO

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Chelsea 2 (Abraham 5', Pulisic 55')