The Mclaren F1 Team achieved their best combined result of the season at the British Grand Prix, with Lando Norris finishing fourth and Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth at Silverstone, but could it have been even better?
In front of a sold-out home crowd, Mclaren blew the chance of a podium for Norris after a lengthy pit-stop following a wheel nut issue. Norris was running third at the time of making the stop, however the long tyre change allowed Valtteri Bottas to overcut the Mclaren driver. In the end Mclaren didn’t quite have the pace for a podium but with a quicker stop their chances would’ve been much greater.
A fourth place finish for Norris does mean though that he is still the only driver on the grid to have scored points at every race this season, could he really go all the way?
Ricciardo had his best race yet for Mclaren, the Australian who didn’t quite have the pace to keep up with those ahead of him like his team-mate, defended with everything he had to keep a rapid Carlos Sainz Jr behind for almost the entire race.
Overall a fantastic home grand prix for Mclaren who yet again added an impressive haul of points to their constructors tally. Team Principal Andreas Seidl is extremely proud of the team but is also apologetic to Norris for the poor pit-stop. Seidl also sends his best wishes to Max Verstappen after the Dutchman’s heavy crash after colliding with Lewis Hamilton.
“Today, in front of a phenomenal crowd at Silverstone, containing a lot of our fans and many of our staff from the MTC, we come away having scored a lot of points in our battle in the Constructors’ Championship. The entire team, our colleagues from Mercedes HPP and both drivers did an outstanding job this weekend to prepare and adapt to the demands of the new sprint format. We improved session by session and leave the circuit having had a very good day.
“We have to say sorry to Lando for the issue with a wheel nut at his pit-stop that took away his chance of fighting for a podium. He drove extremely well for P4, as did Daniel, who took a good step forward for P5, and withstood relentless pressure from Carlos for more than half the race.
“We hope Max is okay after his high-speed crash and send him our best wishes. It’s the one thing that mars a special weekend. F1 and the teams did a great job to put on this new format, which provided a great show for everyone, both in the packed grandstands and back at home. We had a lot of our own people with us in the grandstands this weekend and we really felt the support of the many McLaren fans.
“There’s a lot to learn from this weekend – we’ll go away and analyse it thoroughly to see how we can improve the next time we try sprint quali. But first, a weekend off, some much-needed rest for the team and then on to Hungary.”
