McLaren F1 Team suffered another difficult race weekend as both drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were unable to score any points at the Belgium Grand Prix.
Norris started the race in seventeenth place after taking a grid penalty, with Ricciardo starting in a promising seventh position. The race began with both drivers gaining positions after a safety car was deployed on lap two for Valtteri Bottas’ beached car.
After the restart, both drivers were able to find themselves in point positions for a good proportion of the race. However, due to McLaren struggling for pace and being stuck in a constant DRS train, both Alpines were able to overtake them which lead to the team pitting both drivers for a second time and when re-entering onto the track, left them further down the field. Norris finished in twelfth place with Ricciardo finishing in fifteenth place.
McLaren’s team principal Andreas Seidl spoke after the race admitting that the team struggled due to the warmer conditions which contributed to the overall final positions of both drivers.
“It’s been a tough Sunday for us here in Spa. Warmer conditions today contributed to a lack of pace which, in the end, resulted in us going backwards during the race. Lando finished P12 and Daniel P15, and it wasn’t possible for them to score a better result.“
Seidl thanked his whole team across the weekend as McLaren now focuses and looks to improve as we head to Zandvoort next weekend.
“My thanks to the team at the track and back at the factory, together with our colleagues at Mercedes HPP. The result does not reflect the effort this weekend. Special mention also to our pit-crew who once again did excellent work across our four pit-stops.”
“We’ll use the next few days to reset, regroup and analyse our performance to see what we can learn that will help us come back stronger next weekend in Zandvoort. We go again in five days.”
