McLaren’s Andreas Seidl: “There were tricky calls to be made at the end of the race”

Andreas Seidl admits the result of the Russian Grand Prix was disappointing for the McLaren F1 Team, even though they scored solid points with both Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris in fourth and seventh place respectively.

After being victorious in the Italian Grand Prix two weeks earlier, McLaren looked for much of the afternoon at the Sochi Autodrom that they would take a second consecutive win, with Norris leading comfortably at the front after dispatching early leader Carlos Sainz Jr.

However, with Norris in control and withstanding every threat from behind, the weather added the curveball that saw the Briton gamble on staying out on slicks, a gamble that failed to pay off as the weather worsened and he fell down the order, ultimately finishing seventh.

Ricciardo pitted earlier and was able to take a fourth place, but Seidl, the Team Principal at McLaren, admits analysis of the race and the decisions the team made towards the end in a bid to prevent any repeat of the outcome in Russia.

“We are, of course, disappointed with finishing P4 and P7 in the Russian Grand Prix today, given the positions we were in three laps from the end of the race,” said Seidl.  “On the positive side, both Lando, Daniel and the whole team put in strong performances all weekend, which is highly encouraging going into the last third of the season.

“Thanks to the team at track and back at the factory, along with our colleagues at Mercedes HPP, for their hard work and effort.

“Attention will no doubt be given to the decision to stay out on the slicks with Lando, while we went on Intermediate tyres relatively soon with Daniel. There were tricky calls to be made at the end of the race when it started raining, and that’s never easy.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out on Lando’s side today. As always, we’ll analyse this as a team, together with the drivers, learn from it and come back stronger.”

Seidl was full of praise for race winner Lewis Hamilton for taking his historic one-hundredth Grand Prix victory on Sunday, with the former McLaren and current Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver capitalising on Norris’ misfortunes to take the win.

“Finally, congratulations to Lewis on his historic 100th win,” said Seidl.  “Everyone at McLaren Racing is proud of what he has achieved since his first race with us 14 years ago.”