McLaren F1: Team's poor performance during triple-header "had nothing to do with performance”

McLaren F1 team principal Andreas Seidl talked about their lack of performance in the overseas triple-header on the calendar, which has cost them third place in the constructor’s championship. Seidl reasoned that the loss of points in the three back-to-back races (Mexican Grand Prix, Brazilian Grand Prix and Qatar Grand Prix) had more to do with incidents than the performance of their car.

Speaking ahead of the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the FIA Team Principals' press conference, the German explained their losses in the last three races and said:

“Well, first of all, I think it had nothing to do with performance. Whenever we had our incidents, I think we were ahead of at least one car of the Ferraris, for example. We lost more than 30 points with first lap incidents, or with a tyre puncture last time with Lando. In addition to that on the team side there were things we could have done better. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

McLaren managed to score only six points in total in the overseas triple header, while their rivals Scuderia Ferrari capitalized on double-point finishes in three races. The Woking-based team had the edge over the Maranello-based team until the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.

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McLaren plans to out-score their rivals Ferrari in the final two races on the F1 calendar

According to the McLaren F1 team boss, their loss of performance and incidents within the race weekend were an important lesson. Taking the learnings forward, the team plans to maximize their performance in the final two rounds on the F1 calendar to outperform their rivals Ferraris.

Elaborating on their expectations for the final two races of the season, Seidl said:

“It’s important that we learn from that and improve again. It’s simply important now to focus on these last two races and make sure we get back to scoring the points that are on the table for our car and for the team with Daniel and Lando.”

Currently, McLaren is placed fourth in the constructors' championship standings with a total of 258 points, 37 points behind their rivals Scuderia Ferrari. The team will look to have an incident-free weekend with both their drivers in the top 10 in both races to retake third place in the championship.