McLaren added four points to their 2022 total on Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix, moving the Woking-based team to 50 points in the Constructors’ Championship. It leaves them P4, 11 points ahead of Alfa Romeo.

From P11 on the grid, Lando Norris moved up to finish 8th after overtaking Mick Schumacher and teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the first stint. That was despite him feeling very under the weather.

Ricciardo’s race was quite the opposite. The Australian started 9th but could only managed 12th.

Speaking to MotorLAT and other selected media outlets post-race, Seidl said he had mixed feelings about the Grand Prix.

“In the end with the outcome of the race weekend, I would say mixed feelings," he said.

“I think on Lando’s side we pretty much maximised everything which we had in our hands today, considering also his physical condition all weekend and especially today in the race.

“Obviously disappointed with how the race on Daniel’s car went. It’s something we need to understand… because on all tyres that we fitted today, he simply struggled with grip compared to all the other cars around him. He just went backwards in the race which we need to understand.

“Obviously it’s a shame we couldn’t fight with both cars for points.”

Seidl was pleased with McLaren’s updates working as predicted, while giving credit to teams like Alfa Romeo for their pace as the Swiss-based squad showed great speed with Valtteri Bottas again.

“The upgrade was looking as expected," he continued. 

"We saw good correlation and we saw the step forward in terms of performance.

"I still think now with more time it’s possible to extract even more performance from that package. That’s what we have to do now in the next days and weeks.

"I think we have to state that thanks to these upgrades, we were actually in a position today, at this track, under these conditions as well, that we were actually in a position to fight for points.

"We see where we have been at the first race for example compared to many of the competitors around us, we can definitely see we’ve made a step forward.

"But at the same time, we have to also acknowledge that teams like Alfa Romeo have made a good step forward as well. We are up against very strong competition in this battle for P4 [in the Constructors’ Championship].

"We simply have to keep going, extracting more from this new package and at the same time, see how we can improve the package even more going forward."

Diving further into Norris’ health problems during the weekend, Seidl confirmed that the young Brit is suffering from tonsillitis. The 22-year-old was unable to do post-race media duties such was the pain he was feeling.

The McLaren team principal wanted to stress that the team wouldn’t risk the health of their driver either.

“When you are not feeling well all weekend and your energy levels are low, with the tonsillitis he was suffering from, it was very challenging race today, especially in these hot temperatures as well," he stated.

“He was pretty flat towards the end of the race and after the race, but thanks to the great medical support we have also within the team and he has around him.

“The objective is clear now… we need to make sure he has some good rest in the next four days before we go again in Monaco.

“As a team and from my side, we cannot thank him enough for battling through it. He showed a great fighting spirit because in the end he enabled us to score these four points today. It was great to see the commitment from his side.

"But at the same time, obviously we have a doctor involved in decisions like that and we would never risk the health of Lando, just to be clear on that.

"It was also clear from his side that he wanted to give it a go [and] we went for it."