Seidl Praises ‘Huge Effort’ from McLaren, Mercedes for Improved Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Pace

Andreas Seidl admitted McLaren F1 Team’s target in Saudi Arabia was to score points with both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and he feels they would have achieved their target had the latter not been forced into retirement with a mechanical issue.

Norris scored McLaren’s first points of 2022 by climbing from eleventh on the grid to finish seventh, while Ricciardo was on course to break into the top ten as well despite starting fourteenth.  However, a problem, possibly with his clutch, exiting the final turn on lap thirty-five saw him ground to a halt.

However, after the disappointment of their no-score in Bahrain, Seidl was pleased with how McLaren bounced back at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and he praised everyone within the team, and those within their engine suppliers Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, for their efforts.

“P7 today. Six points. We’ll take that,” said Seidl.  “Starting P11 and P14, our target was to stay in the race, make good strategic decisions and get back into the top 10 with Lando and Daniel, who did a great job all weekend of maximising the package we have at the moment.

“The entire team worked very hard to achieve that. Thanks to everyone at the track, back in the factory, and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP, for a huge effort this week. P7 was a good result for Lando, and the reward everyone deserved.

“Special mention for our pit-crew who did two excellent stops again today. We also have to apologise to Daniel. Without his mechanical failure we would have had both cars home in the points. We’ll analyse the exact cause of his DNF when we’re home.” 

“We know we need to keep working hard”

Seidl says the team will need to keep working hard to move themselves closer to the leading battle, and the points scored in Saudi Arabia will be good motivation for them to do just that.

“We know we need to keep working hard in order to deliver more performance to the car, so points like today are great motivation to keep pushing,” he said.  

“The team will head home tonight after three intense weeks in the Middle East and take a short break and reset before gearing up for Melbourne.”

Away from McLaren, Seidl was happy that the regulation changes to the aerodynamics have, so far at least, shown that cars can follow other cars much better, and it is making for fantastic racing up and down the field.

“Last but not least, moving away from our own race, it’s great to see another fantastic, thrilling grand prix,” Seidl said.  “Formula 1’s new regulations are doing what they were designed to do, creating real drama with cars being able to follow closely.

“It’s very encouraging for an exciting, dramatic 2022.”