McLaren returned to win races and score pole positions, but how did such an improvement happen? The British team is again in the fight for the third position in both championships, but Norris's missed opportunity might have hurt the tally.

Team Principal Andreas Seidl was asked in the post-race press conference if he feels like McLaren is on the same "operational" level as Mercedes and Red Bull, or if mistakes such as the long pit stop Daniel Ricciardo suffered from while fighting for third place proof that there's still a long way to go to reach them.

He answered by mentioning the new technical directive introduced by FIA in Hungary delaying some steps in the pit stop routine, to ensure that all wheels are fastened on the car as some of the causes of the delay:

"Just relating it to pit stops would be wrong because I think you can see at the moment about the pit lane that are unknown the consequences of the TD that, let's say, "spread" in terms of pit stop times to be seen, but the pit lane is quite big, there's slow pits still happening."

After receiving the DHL prize for the fastest pit in Monza, which had helped Daniel Ricciardo's in his quest for the victory, Seidl believes the slowdown the Australian suffered from in Sochi will stay an isolated occurrence, and foremost a teaching experience:

"Today with Daniel we had an issue on the front left corner, we just need to analyse what happened there, but it's clear that, when I look back at the last two and a half years we have made big steps forward in terms of the execution and the operations as a team during race weekends."

"I think a big part of that is simply versatility, we have also that in the team in terms of personeel. We're building this up together, learning from the mistakes while they're happening, and I think that's what you see at the end in terms of results."

He pointed out the areas in which the team is performing the best at the moment, but always keeping in mind that the gap to the title contenders isn't closed yet:

"We have great reliability, which is obviously key to score these points all the time from the car side. In spite of what happened today at the end of the race, we have a race team that is sometimes spot-on with the strategies, with tyres and change calls during the races, so I'm very happy with the progress we have made.

"Of course, compared to the teams that are ahead of us in the championship, we still have deficits I would say in all areas, and that's why it's important, more so after a weekend like Monza for example, or after a pole position like yesterday's, the first thing you have to do is analyse what you could have done better because there's always something you can do better."

"When you're satisfied with what you have achieved, that's the start of the decline," he summed up his approach.