The Woking team battled its main rival in midfield for over one lap in qualifying, and both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were each beaten by a Ferrari driver as they finished fifth and ninth in the race.
With pole sitters Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in 4th and 8th place respectively, Ferrari overtook McLaren to third place in the constructors’ championship for the first time this season.
While Seidl comforted himself with the fact that McLaren had fallen just two points behind Ferrari after consecutive races on tracks better suited to the SF21 than the MCL35M, he warned that McLaren needs to improve its qualifying performance.
“If you start from P9 and P13 and after the first corners are P12 and P13, then land on P5 and P9 – just one position behind each Ferrari – that is clearly damage limitation,” said Seidl on Sunday evening.
“Ultimately we have to finish higher up on Saturday, then our Sundays are a lot easier because I think we had the pace today to keep up with the front.
“But once you’ve been on the train today, there’s not much you can do. Another good job by both drivers and the team to keep your head calm in a difficult race. We are therefore very happy that we only lost four points to Ferrari today, which was a good result after a disappointing Saturday. “
On the subject of matching items
Both McLaren and Ferrari benefited from Mercedes having a rare day off when Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas failed to score while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was out with a puncture.
“I think if it had been a normal race, it would have been clear that Mercedes and Red Bull were gone,” added Seidl. “But I think if it had been a full-throttle race, the Ferrari’s tire degradation could have been very interesting.
“It’s so hard to say what would have been possible in a normal race and also hard to say what would have happened if we’d ended up where we should have been in terms of car performance yesterday in qualifying.
“But in the end it doesn’t count; we have to bring it together on Saturday and Sunday and for that you have to work. Then as a team you get the results you deserve, and that’s our focus. “
On the subject of matching items
When asked whether McLaren would be more likely to keep up with McLaren on the next lap at Paul Ricard, Seidl said: “It is difficult to draw conclusions about the pecking order on certain tracks from earlier races of the season.
“So I think it’s just hard to tell. In general, apart from our last places in qualifying yesterday, it was again positive that we definitely got much closer to the Mercedes and Red Bulls in front of us in terms of pace, which is encouraging.
“These are the steps we have to take as a team. We have to take these steps to fight these teams again in the future. “
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