British Grand Prix – McLaren boss Andreas Seidl has praised Daniel Ricciardo’s strong drive at the British Grand Prix, which saw him finish in the top five alongside teammate Lando Norris.
The Australian has struggled so far this season in his new MCL35M and has been overshadowed by his teammate Norris in terms of results.
Hamilton takes British GP win despite collision with Verstappen
However, Ricciardo’s weekend at Silverstone was a much more positive one with the seven-time winner just 0.02s off his teammate in qualifying. The Australian finished just behind him in the Sprint helping to secure a double top five finish for McLaren in the Grand Prix.
When asked about the British Grand Prix weekend, McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl highlighted Ricciardo’s drive as one of the many positives from the weekend.
“Very strong drive all weekend from Lando and I’m very happy with the progress Daniel made, a really good step forward in qualifying on Friday and then managed to pull off some good races which is great to see. Looking forward now to Hungary,” said Seidl after the race.
“As Daniel said also after the race, there’s still things obviously to improve to match Lando, but the important thing is he’s making steps, feeling more comfortable in the car in both quali and the race and it was a big step forward compared to previous races which was good.”
Despite Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing on the podium in second place, the Woking-based squad retains their position in third in the constructors’ championship. Leclerc was leading the race comfortably for most of the race, only being overtaking by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with two laps remaining.
Seidl was wary of Ferrari’s pace even though the teams’ results ensured they maintain a 15-point gap to their Italian rivals heading into Hungary.
“In terms of the outcome of the race,” said Seidl. “I think, obviously, we didn’t finish the battle with Valtteri with Lando. If there was a chance we could fight for P3, difficult to say as if we’d done another pit stop Valtteri would have gone long, long, long with his stint and then created a tyre delta at the end of the race.
“So [it’s] difficult to say if that would have been a chance to keep him behind. To be realistic, he would have just gone by like he did with everyone else.
“But overall, for us, a very strong weekend with P4 and P5. Scoring strong points in our fight in the constructors’ championship and then we have to accept the cars ahead of us at the end of the race, Charles especially in the Ferrari was very quick all weekend.”
