McLaren’s Andreas Seidl: “It’s been very encouraging to see the pace we’ve had in the car”

Andreas Seidl says the McLaren F1 Team scoring more points in the Monaco Grand Prix than their closest rivals was a good result, even though only Lando Norris was able to finish inside the top ten.

Norris fought hard with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s George Russell for fifth but was forced to settle for sixth at the chequered flag, but team-mate Daniel Ricciardo struggled once more and could only muster a thirteenth-place result.

Seidl, the Team Principal at McLaren, says Norris’ nine points – eight for the sixth place and a bonus one for fastest lap – make the result a positive one for McLaren.

“We’re leaving Monaco with P6 and the fastest lap for Lando,” said Seidl.  “Nine points is more than our competitors for P4 in the Constructors’ Championship managed, which makes this a very positive outcome.

“Lando showed strong pace all weekend. In the rapidly changing conditions we had a 50:50 call which just didn’t work-out for us and he lost a position – but he didn’t put a foot wrong today in challenging conditions.”

Seidl says Ricciardo’s race was always going to be difficult coming from fourteenth on the grid, and with opportunities to move forward being severely limited due to the tight nature of the circuit, it was just a long day in the office for the Australian.

“For Daniel, starting in P14, we were hoping for opportunities to come our way, but nothing did and we could only make up one position to finish P13,” he said.  

“Such is the nature of racing in Monaco.”

Seidl says there has been encouragement within the team across the Monaco weekend about the strong pace McLaren had in the principality, and he hopes this can continue into the next couple of races in Azerbaijan and Canada.

“Overall, it’s been very encouraging to see the pace we’ve had in the car all weekend,” Seidl insisted.  “It’s been a very long, very hot two weeks on the road for this double-header.

“My thanks to the entire team, trackside and back at the factory, together with our colleagues at Mercedes HPP, for the great effort. We get a weekend off now, before setting out on our next double-header. We’ll rest, reset and get ready to go again”