McLaren F1 Team Principal Andreas Seidl said that Lando Norris maximized his position to take seventh at the Hungarian Grand Prix, finishing behind only the top three teams. He was pleased to see their recent upgrade placed them ahead of their main rival in the standings, BWT Alpine F1 Team, when it comes to pace at the Hungaroring.
“With all six cars from the top three teams finishing the race, P7 was the best we could achieve today – and we did it. The upgrade we introduced at Paul Ricard – and improved our understanding of here – put us into position to be the fourth fastest team, which is a great achievement.”
Seidl said that despite running essentially the same tyre strategy on both cars, Daniel Ricciardo ended up struggling after his second stop on the hard tyres, a compound that ended up being difficult for other teams on the grid as well. Ultimately, Ricciardo’s race ended out of the points in fifteenth after starting ninth.
“Lando executed a clean race today to take that seventh place but with the same strategy on Daniel’s side, we struggled to generate grip in the final stint on the Hard tyre and he fell out of the points.”
Seidl said that Ricciardo’s relative struggle with the hard tyre is worth reviewing as the team enters summer break, and he looks forward to some rest before the final half of the season, in which McLaren will likely be battling Alpine for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. McLaren is currently just four points behind Alpine, a close fight that Seidl expects to be “thrilling”.
“This is something we will have to study in the final week before the summer shutdown. Big thank you to everyone at the track, back at the factory and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP for the immense effort so far this year.
“Everyone should go away and enjoy the break, recharge our batteries and come back stronger for what should be a thrilling battle in the Constructors’ Championship. See you in Spa.”
