F1 | Dutch GP | McLaren needs “to reset, regroup and go again in Monza” to be “in position again to fight with the Ferraris”, says Seidl
McLaren’s Team Principal Andreas Seidl on a difficult Dutch Grand Prix, that saw the team drop behind Ferrari in the Championship.
F1 leaves the Netherlands with changes in the standings: Max Verstappen retook the Drivers' Championship lead from Lewis Hamilton, while Ferrari is now 3rd in front of McLaren in the Constructors'.
It wasn’t the best weekend for McLaren in Zandvoort, as they only managed to score one point.
On Saturday Lando Norris was out in Q2 and only managed to qualify in 13th place, while his teammate was 10th on the grid. Race day didn’t go much better, with Norris finishing P10 and Ricciardo right behind him.
“I think that was all that was actually possible to us. I think the race itself was executed well, we managed to get Lando ahead of some cars, we tried to play the team game,” commented Andreas Seidl after the race.
The plan for McLaren was “getting both cars into a position for potential points, to see if there's actually a chance to take the Alpines.”
“But in the end we didn't have the pace to do that, therefore we had to accept that all that was possible to do was one point, which was obviously not what we had in mind when coming here to this race weekend.”
Asked whether they slowed down Ricciardo a bit in order to have him back Norris up from Russell and Stroll, Seidl replied: “With Daniel stopping quite early in the race, we instructed him to manage his pace as well to make sure we get to the points and have tyres ready for potential attacks later on in the race against cars, for example, that went to mediums quite early as well.”
“And with Lando having at the same time free air on his fresh tyres,” he “actually used the pace that was available and could jump then from George and Stroll. He came up just behind Daniel and then it was just a straightforward decision, because of the tyre Delta we could create for Lando compared to the cars around him, including Daniel, and compared to the cars in front of him, to let him through as quickly as possible.”
A decision, he explained, that was taken “in order to see if it was actually possible to attack cars in front and maximize the team's result.”
Not much time to analyse and get the most out of a bad weekend, as the focus needs to be quickly shifted to the Italian GP, Ferrari’s home Grand Prix where the Woking team is hoping to reclose the gap for the 3rd place.
“We need to reset, regroup and go again in Monza to make sure we are in position again to fight with the Ferraris.”
