It wasn’t the greatest day for the McLaren F1 Team in the constructors championship – not managing to score a point after both cars got caught up in the Turn 1 chaos, Lando Norris’ incident being race-ending, Daniel Ricciardo’s affecting his race so he was unable to score a point.
For Norris there is not much to analyze, only making it to one turn in the race, from what he did experience it was a good race – having a fantastic start getting into the final podium place but was then taken out under-breaking by Valtteri Bottas and ended up being a passenger in the incident. The mechanics did their best in trying to get the Briton back out into the race after the red-flag but it wasn’t possible as the car had already suffered too much damage.
“Not much to say, it was a short race! I only really made it to Turn One. Until then, it was extremely good – I was into third place but then I got taken out and was just a passenger. The boys did a great job trying to get the car fixed and get me back out during the red flag, but it was impossible as there was just too much damage.”
It is obviously a huge shame that the team came away with no points from the Grand Prix but they can take comfort that the results were not their fault as hard as it may be to do so, overall the team based in Woking can be satisfied with their performance this year and will hope that the summer break represents a change in fortunes.
“It’s a huge shame, but it wasn’t our fault. We still had a good weekend, and everything was going well until then, so we can be satisfied with our performances and look forward to the next one.”
As important as it may be to develop the cars over the break, its important for everyone’s physical and mental health to have a break so that they can come back energised and ready to go ahead of the new season.
“I hope everyone can have a well-deserved rest now. The whole team here and back at the factory has done an awesome job this season. We’ll come back more energised and ready to retake what we lost out on this weekend.”
Daniel Ricciardo Disappointed – Citing Collision With Lance Stroll As The Ending For His Race
Ricciardo thought he had missed the mess in turn 1 and was most likely staring down the barrel of a podium or even a win, but Lance Stroll was going to plough into either Charles Leclerc or Esteban Ocon.
And unfortunately for Ricciardo it was Leclerc who the Canadian crashed into, who in turn spun round Ricciardo by no fault of his own. Leclerc’s issue was terminal, however, Ricciardo was able to carry on but had to battle through the race with a heavily damaged car – similar to former team-mate Max Verstappen.
“These races are fun for the fans because there’s always chaos. Wet starts are never boring and it’s very tricky for us. I was halfway around Turn One and I thought I’d escaped the mess. I could see one car in front and thought ‘I’m P2! This is amazing!’ and just as I exited the corner, I saw Charles [Leclerc] come into me, but I’d suspected someone went into him, because he caught me really late in the corner.”
All the mistakes made by other drivers damaged the race, Bottas ending Norris’ race and Stroll ending Ricciardo’s so despite their best efforts there wasn’t really much they could do. On top of how difficult it is to overtake around the Hungaroring the damage limited downforce meaning that it was even harder to follow cars than usual which dramatically limited the McLaren’s race pace.
“There were a few other drivers making mistakes into the first corner and it cost a lot of us a race. Valtteri [Bottas] obviously cost Lando his race and Lance [Stroll] cost me mine. So, there wasn’t much more we could do after that, despite us trying. There were parts where I could hang on to the cars ahead, but with the car damage we had, and the difficulty overtaking here, it really just limited our race.”
At the end of the race the Australian was just trying to hang on to any points positions but unfortunately was passed by Verstappen right in the dying moments for the Grand Prix but Ricciardo feels satisfied with the drive he put in despite being devastated not being able to keep the Dutchman behind.
“In the end, the tyres were gone, and it was just about trying to hang on for dear life, but I couldn’t hang on to the points. I tried to hold on to Max, and to be honest I thought I did okay! I don’t know how many laps I held him off, but once he was past, the race was done, which is a shame.
“It looked very promising, but now, when you look at the race and the chaotic results, you realise you could’ve been up there, but unfortunately not. We were one of the many that just got unlucky today through no fault of our own.”
After such a chaotic race a holiday is needed after a couple of days of testing so that when the Belgian Grand Prix rolls around Ricciardo is raring and ready to go.
“After a race like that we’re all looking forward to the holidays, but we’ll push on for a few more days of testing and then I’m very much looking forward to taking a break and just switching off, recharging the batteries and coming back stronger in Belgium.”
