Seidl coy on McLaren Monaco outlook

Andreas Seidl believes the unpredictable nature of Monaco makes it impossible to predict despite McLaren's impressive early pace this season.

After the first four races of the year, McLaren sits third in the constructors' standings and holds a five-point advantage over midfield rival Ferrari.

Although McLaren is the only team to score points with both drivers at each race, Seidl would not be drawn into making any predictions ahead of the return of F1's blue-riband event after it was axed from last year's calendar due to the pandemic.

“To be honest, Monaco is always difficult to predict," said team principal Seidl. "I went there in my racing career with cars that have been good and suddenly we have finished in P16 and P18 in qualifying and did not know why.

“We have also seen it the other way around in the past. At the same time sometimes cars are simply strong and they are also strong there.

"So I would say it is difficult to predict and again, the battle we are in is so close with Ferrari but also with other teams, especially when it is about one-lap performance in qualifying."

The tight and twisty final sector three at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya acts as a good indicator of pace for Monaco, with corners not too dissimilar to those around the Principality.

McLaren, this through the weekend will sport a special one-off livery, struggled in comparison to Ferrari in that sector but again Seidl would not jump to conclusions about his team's chances.

Asked if the lack of pace was a concern, he said: “Not really. I think as I have said before, it is so track specific at Monaco that it is difficult to predict, to be honest.”

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