McLaren Racing Formula One Team Principal Andreas Seidl says that the Woking-based outfit has learned a lot from this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix that they can take forward to the next race in Saudi Arabia. Speaking to Paddock Eye during his post-race media debrief, Seidl admitted that taking four points from the past three races has been painful for the entire team.
Seidl said that while the team has lost of a lot of points it has been out of their control and has just been down to bad luck as they showed strong race pace during the Grand Prix weekend.
The German said that it is part of the sport that we are in. Seidl said that the team had good pit-stops and they have two good race drivers and a competitive car and they plan to strike back in Saudi. Seidl went on to say:
This triple-header didn’t go our way. Lando drove a strong race today and looked set for P4 on merit, thanks to a competitive car, good strategy and an excellent pit-stop. A puncture took him out of contention, and he finished P9. When that happened, his Hard tyre had done fewer laps than the Soft tyre did in his first stint, so this was very unexpected. For Daniel, it was always going to be tough to get into the points from P14. He drove a very strong first stint that pulled him up into contention, but then had to save an unusually high amount of fuel. We’ll have to investigate why that was required on his side.
“My thanks to the entire team, who have worked incredibly hard, both here at the track and back at the factory, and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP, who have given us excellent support. Everyone has pushed very hard through this intense run of races. We’ll go home now, reset, take a weekend off and try to finish the season on a high
Lando Norris who finished the race in ninth place commented saying:
“A disappointing race. We could’ve scored some good points today. The car was very strong, I felt confident and we had good pace compared to everyone behind. Only Fernando [Alonso] had slightly better pace. I’m not sure we could’ve challenged for the podium, but we had good pace to go for P4, or at least P5, which would’ve been a great result for us. We lost that position through no fault of our own. It’s a huge shame, as the team worked really hard all weekend, but there was nothing we could do.”
Daniel Ricciardo in the second McLaren came home in 12th place and speaking following the race he said:
“Unfortunately, a pretty disappointing end to the triple-header today. We ran into some issues with fuel, and we had to save which dictated our race. So, not sure what happened but we obviously need to look into it. I’m looking forward to moving on. I think a weekend off is necessary for everyone involved. We’ll debrief now, try to understand the issues today and then we’ve got some sim time next week to get ready for the last two. Let’s finish strong.”