The definition of a perfect weekend came for McLaren, as the Woking-based team sealed its first victory nine years after its latest when Jenson Button won the 2012 Brazilian GP. Daniel Ricciardo commanded a final 1-2 for the British team and, almost two weeks later, Andreas Seidl recalls on the magnificent weekend the team achieved on round 14 of the F1 2021 championship.

“It has been a while for McLaren. Great day for us at the track, a great day for everyone back at the MTC, because the team went for a hard period and we have people in the team that has seen the success in the past and also some really dark days, and for them was obviously great to see the McLaren car back on the top of the podium again.”

“At the same time you have a lot of young people in the team, people that joined the last three, four years, that have never experienced such a success in Formula 1, so in the end, good for all these people. Personally, for me, it’s a very good combination that we have to be heading in the right direction.”

“It's key for our objectives that we can fight for race wins at every race weekend,” he said.

“I don’t see like “get this win out of the way”; I’m not to focus on these individual results, to be honest. It was a great day for the team, as I said before, only for these moments of joy and emotions that you get from such a race win it’s why we wake up in the morning because we want to win races in the end, but at the same time my focus is, to focus on the team, and keep moving forward, in the end, we want to get to the positions to fight for race wins at every track and fight for championships again in the future,” the German stated.

“Most pleasant thing for me was to see that actually, from the pressure coming from having a competitive car and pressure coming from race weekends where we didn’t score good points, that the team actually delivered under this pressure. That gives confidence seeing that we have a lot of ingredients already in place in the team that, once we get to a point where we fight with Red Bull or Mercedes on every race weekend, that’s very good to see. Have a reliable car, a competitive car, and quickest race lap, quickest pit stop under a lot of pressure knowing that it was needed to stay ahead and stay in position to fight for the win.”

The McLaren team principal had a word regarding the weather forecast that seems to not give in with the rain in the Sochi Autodrom and has the whole paddock talking after the events at Spa: “Sunday doesn’t look too bad actually so I think we’ll actually have the chance to have some good running on Sunday.”

Seidl explained to the media how the experience of McLaren’s 1-2 taking place as it did was for each one of the team’s drivers.

“Regarding Lando, he wouldn’t be a racing driver if he was happy with the P2. That’s all he could have wished, to win the race, but at the same time with him being part of this journey since the last years, I think he enjoyed himself being part of this day in P2, in the end, the great weekend was done there, and simply continue to put on a good performance.”

“All I could do in the last week with Lando is simply thank him for everything that he was doing for us, this entire season so far, because we shouldn’t forget, especially with the struggles Daniel had in this first half of the season, that it was very important we had Lando pulling off these performances, we all know how this sport works. I think he appreciates that and understands that his time will come, it will be more opportunities in his career.”

“On Daniel’s side, he was feeling better on the car since he came back from the summer break and actually this was visibly in terms of results. Therefore I was very happy that it showed off in Monza. Simply looking forward now and of course, there’s a lot more to come from his side. Definitely, we have one of the front line-ups here in the paddock which will be key in the battle we have with Ferrari and onto the journey getting back to the front in Formula 1, in the next years,” he concluded.