01/10/2021
NEWS STORY
McLaren boss, Andreas Seidl admits that there are a number of areas the team still has to work on.
As McLaren comes to terms with last weekend's heartbreak it is easy to forget that it was just a few seasons ago the Woking outfit was enduring the pain and embarrassment of its revived partnership with Honda.
Now, as it edges ahead of Ferrari to claim the 'best of the rest' title, the performances at Monza and Sochi suggest a bright future for the British team.
However, team boss, Andreas Seidl isn't getting carried away, the German admitting that there are a number of areas on which the team must work if it is ever to seriously challenge the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes.
"We are building this up together," he says, according to Motorsport Week, "we are learning from the mistakes that are happening, and I think that's what you see in terms of results.
"We're in a better position to... I don't want to say too much," he continues, "but we've had a great run of reliability, which is key in being able to score these points all the time, from the car side."
Indeed, the Woking outfit has 29 finishes from 30 starts, 24 (80%) of those finishes being in the points.
"I think we, in spite of what happened at the end of the race, we have a race team that is sometimes spot on with the strategy, with tyres calls during the race," he adds, "so I am very happy with the progress we are making.
"But, of course, in terms of the teams that are ahead of us in the championship, we still have deficits in I would say all areas, and that's why it's important after a weekend like in Monza or the pole position, the first thing you have to do is analyse what you could have done better because there's always something you could have done better. The moment you are satisfied with what you have achieved is the start of the decline so that's how we approach it.
"I see us simply being in the middle of a journey, getting back to the front in Formula 1," he adds. "We have a clear plan in place of what we need to make in terms of what steps, on the infrastructure side, organisational side, cultural side in order to make these next steps, in order to battle the teams in front of us at each race weekend.
"It's important in this sport to keep the respect up of all the competitors as well and simply keep learning and again with everything I keep seeing in the team, I'm very happy, very confident that once we have everything in place that we need on our journey, we'll be in a position to fight Red Bull and Mercedes again regularly.
"And obviously it's great to see that already now occasionally depending on the tracks as well, we are able to fight for pole positions and for the race win."