McLaren’s Andreas Seidl: “That was a lot of hard work for a single point”

The McLaren F1 Team scored only one point during Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, and Team Principal Andreas Seidl admitted it was a tough day for the Woking-based team at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Daniel Ricciardo’s chances of points were all but over at turn one on the opening lap after the Australian made contact with Valtteri Bottas.  The incident forced Ricciardo to pit for a new front wing, while there was also damage to his MCL35M that made overtaking even more difficult than it already was as he ended the day outside the points in twelfth.

Lando Norris, on the other hand, was able to climb from eighteenth on the grid to claim tenth and the final point having gone into the race with a new Mercedes-Benz power unit.

Seidl admits the effort put in by the team throughout the weekend in Mexico was not reflected by the end result, but they still have hopes of overhauling Scuderia Ferrari and finish third in the Constructors’ Championship in 2021.

“Tough Sunday for us in Mexico,” said Seidl.  “Daniel’s race was effectively over after Turn One. He hooked-up a great start, made some positions and then had an unfortunate coming together with Valtteri [Bottas].

“He needed to pit for a new front wing and had some additional damage on the car. Definitely a missed opportunity.

“On Lando’s side, it was always clear he would have a difficult race today, starting from P18. He made up as many positions as possible, got back into the points but with the pace we had in the car today, it wasn’t possible to achieve any more. 

“Thanks to the entire team, the drivers and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP – that was a lot of hard work for a single point and the result does not reflect the effort. We’ll reset, relocate to Brazil, and prepare to go again next weekend.”