McLaren

McLaren not ruled by crash-cost fears - Seidl

Seidl reacted to comments made by Toto Wolff regarding the implications of crashing on 2022 car development

Ewan Gale

Sunday 25 April 2021 15:26

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has insisted the strain of F1's budget cap will not change the team's approach to race weekends.

After the lap 32 Imola crash between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff warned the cost of repairing the significant damage to one of the team's cars could threaten both this season's title charge as well as the preparation for next year's regulation changes.

The Imola incident served as a harsh reminder to teams that, with the budget cap in place, any incident will carry a higher price than in years gone by.

Despite this Seidl is adamant his team's mindset for future race weekends will not change.

“That’s obviously a challenge we are aware of on the financial side but that is not something we have in mind when we go into a race weekend or into a quali session or a race," said Seidl.

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“We always try, together with our drivers, to be sensible and reasonable on track but at the same time, we are ambitious.

"We want to go for results and in order to go for those you need to push these cars to the limit.

"Therefore I am happy that we got away without any major incidents so far this season.”

In the opening two races of the year, McLaren has shown extremely strong pace with the Woking-based team currently third in the constructors' standings.

Lando Norris strengthened this position by finishing third at Imola to secure the second podium finish of his F1 career, a result that also catapulted the British driver to third in the drivers' championship.

Seidl pointed to this early form as evidence that the work completed over the winter is beginning to pay off.

“What was encouraging to see in quali and in the race was that it is a great confirmation for us that the entire team, together with our colleagues from Mercedes, did a great job over the winter," he added.

"I can only thank really every single member of the team for doing this great job.

“We made a great step forward again with the car. We have a very competitive car which is encouraging because that is obviously very important to keep this positive momentum up.

"That is also key in making these steps in order to get back to the front one day in Formula 1."