Andreas Seidl: Clean opening races for McLaren positive for upper cost limit

Andreas Seidl says that two clean opening laps of the season calmed McLaren’s thoughts from a financial point of view.

However, due to the upper cost limit of Formula 1, they will not change their attitude towards racing.

After the severe damage inflicted on Mercedes by Valtteri Bottas and Williams by George Russell in Imola, Toto Wolff says the labor involved in repairing Bottas’ car will strain the budget and limit the team’s upgrades for the coming season.

McLaren team boss Seidl has overseen the operations as the Woking team looked strong in the early stages of the season but says the cars need to be pushed as hard as possible – with the added bonus of not causing any major damage.

“It is a challenge that we are aware of financially,” Seidl told Formula1.com. “But we don’t think about that when [the drivers] Go to a race weekend or a qualifying or a race.

“We always try together with our drivers to be sensible and sensible on the track. At the same time, we are ambitious and want to achieve good results.

“To do this you have to push these cars to their limits. So I’m glad we’ve gotten away with it without major incidents so far this season. “

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After taking a big step forward in 2020, McLaren continued their progress this season, with Lando Norris notably finishing P3 in the Drivers’ Championship after taking P4 and P3 in the two previous races.

Daniel Ricciardo “swallowed his pride” to let Norris through at Imola, but since the Australian has only completed two races with his new team, he is determined to reach his usual heights – which is a good sign for the team that is moving forward .

Nonetheless, Seidl was pragmatic and warned that there is still a long way to go before the team really becomes the front runner in Formula 1 again.

“I would definitely say that it is a well-deserved podium,” said Seidl after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola. “When you look at the two boys who were before us [Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton]They are the reference in sport, along with their teams at the moment. So it was very good to finish in P3, but… it’s important not to get carried away with this result.

“If you look at how fast Max can drive away on his final stint, we can see that we still have a lot to do. Overall, however, it was very encouraging to see in qualifying yesterday and in the race today that this is great confirmation for us that the entire team, together with our colleagues from Mercedes, has done a great job over the winter. “

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