Andreas Seidl: After some time we will earn it back

Andreas Seidl, head of McLaren, is pleased that Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo performed quite confidently in Melbourne, earning points. At the same time, it is clear that 5th and 6th place are not high enough for such a team, but they still indicate progress.

Andreas Seidl: “After a difficult start to the season, our riders’ 5th and 6th results in Melbourne will give strength to the whole team. It’s great that we were able to add speed – we even saw this in practice on Friday, then in qualifying on Saturday and were able to confirm this on the Grand Prix distance.

Lando and Daniel did a good job, but the same has to be said for the mechanics who worked on the pit stops. We have had a positive experience, it will help to continue the work on technical innovations, which is in full swing, as we intend to overcome the difficulties encountered in the first races and try to overtake the leaders.

In my opinion Daniel was happy after the home race because the most important thing for him was to see McLaren making progress. His results this weekend were also good, he and Lando were almost equal in speed – that’s what I need. I want both drivers to earn points and the team will gradually rise to higher positions in the Constructors’ Championship.

In that regard, I think it turned out well. It’s clear that Lando and Daniel want to achieve more, just like the whole team, but we were also happy with how they handled the difficulties over the last two to three weeks, kept the spirits up and helped me lead the team in this. difficult situation.

But it is still difficult to predict whether we can perform as well in Imola. I think you can fight for points in all races with our car. The situation in Bahrain was specific – due to the fact that we were not able to do enough laps during the tests. At the same time, it is clear that we aim to improve the efficiency of the MCL36, we are working on it and I am sure we will recover after a while.”