F1 | Sao Paulo GP | Seidl is not surprised with Ferrari’s improvement and would be happy with fourth place in the Constructors’ Championships
It was a harsh Sunday for the McLarens at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace with only one point conquered by Lando Norris and a DNF finish for Daniel Ricciardo.
The battle for third place in the Constructors Championship is still an open chapter: Ferrari are embroiled in that fight with McLaren - with the Scuderia being ahead thanks to their strong race in Mexico.
That’s it for the #BrazilGP. 🇧🇷🏁
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 14, 2021
Lando does well to score a point for the team, fighting through the field after a puncture on lap 1.
NOR 🇬🇧 P10
RIC 🇦🇺 DNF
Still three races to go. We’re never giving up. 👊 pic.twitter.com/W5BNQjJ1lG
Carlos Sainz was starting third, Lando Norris fifth and Charles Leclerc sixth. The British driver had a really bad start - Norris tried to overtake his former team-mate but caught his rear tyre on the Ferrari front wing, causing a puncture.
On the other side of the garage, Daniel Ricciardo didn’t have a much better afternoon. Starting from P11, he had to retire the car due to some “technical issues with the chassis and a power loss on track,” as explained by Seidl during the post-race debrief with selected media.
Apart from Sunday’s bad performance, Seidl believes the team’s performance is not much different from the rest of the season – “we know in certain tracks we are stronger than others but we’re always there fighting with Pierre (Gasly), Charles (Leclerc) and the top of the field,” commented Seidl.
“What we have been missing in the last few races, is that we weren’t able to get points which would have been easily achievable and this is a bit disappointing…but hopefully things will get better next week in Qatar”.
The German Team Principal was then asked what his perspective is on the title’s fight.
“We need to be realistic on what we can achieve this year”
“There are only a few races left but independently from the championship, we must make sure to come back on the positive from the mental point of view,” he commented.
While McLaren registered some incredible peak performances in the first half of the season, the gap to Ferrari never seemed so big as it is now.
“Everything seems to go very good for Ferrari at the moment,” Seidl conceded, “we’re approaching the end of the season so it will be difficult but as long as it is realistically possible, we’ll try to hand in there for the third place”.
The McLaren’s team boss claims that even if the team was to finish fourth in the championship, he would still be satisfied with it.
“The team made huge improvements, we’re definitely heading in the right direction,” he said, “obviously now everyone is focusing on P3 or P4 but what is most important for us is to be able to get strong as a team, achieve stability and then become competitive to be at the top”.
“Before the start of the season, if you told me I would finish fourth, I would take it. Then, obviously, after the initial performances, I started to believe in a third-place but fourth would be satisfactory too”.
“We had some incredible weekends this season like Austria and Monza where we deserved to score those points. We did incredibly good and were operationally strong as a team. But in terms of pace, the picture didn’t change that much”.
Moreover, he is not at all surprised with Ferrari’s resurgence: “It’s not a surprise that a team like Ferrari is coming back strong, after the bad season they had last year they’re coming back where you expect them to be”.
After the Sao Paulo GP, Ferrari is sitting thirty-one and a half points ahead of the Woking team. Depending on next week’s result in Qatar this chapter of the championship battle might get to a closing point.
