Andreas Seidl – McLaren needs to be “ready to capitalise” to aim for double points in Imola

Looking ahead to this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, McLaren F1 Team Principal Andreas Seidl aims to put both cars in the points for the second year in a row at the Imola venue. He said the team will need to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities that arise, particularly with the additional factor of this weekend’s sprint format. 

“We have a good track record in Imola since it returned to the calendar in 2020, with double points for the team at both races. We aim for the same this year, but a track like Imola often creates opportunities and the addition of the sprint format for this weekend means we’ll need to be operationally sharp and ready to capitalise. 

Seidl looks forward to seeing the new regulation cars in Imola, and predicts that there will be a lot of action on track as a result of the cars’ enhanced overtaking ability paired with the new sprint points system, which awards eight points for first place down to one point for eighth. 

“Imola is a great, historic track and it will be interesting to see how the improved overtaking from these new cars will impact racing. With the grid for Sunday determined by the Sprint, there is bound to be plenty of exciting racing for the fans, now with the added incentive of points for the top eight on Saturday.”

Having achieved a season-high finish in Australia, Seidl is motivated to continue the progress made since the beginning of the season and focus on extracting results in Imola. 

“A fifth and sixth finish in Australia was a great result for the team and a testament to everyone’s hard work at track and back in Woking. Let’s keep fighting, keep taking these steps forward and give everything we can this weekend.”