McLaren qualifying concerns continue in fight with Ferrari

McLaren

McLaren qualifying concerns continue in fight with Ferrari

Ferrari outqualified both McLaren's but slipped back at Paul Ricard

Ewan Gale

Saturday 26 June 2021 11:42

Andreas Seidl has reiterated the importance of discovering qualifying form as McLaren seeks to extend its lead over Ferrari in the race for third in the F1 constructors' title.

Despite Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo qualifying adrift of the two Ferraris at Paul Ricard last weekend, McLaren's race pace was far superior, cementing fifth and sixth as the Scuderia faltered and left France pointless.

With the gap now standing at 16 points, Seidl is not resting on his laurels and has acknowledged how quickly the points picture can change this year.

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“Well, in terms of the constructors’ championship it is obviously still early in the season," said Seidl.

"We have seen in previous races how quick it [the gap] can also go when you have a weekend where you struggle to score any points for various reasons or you suddenly make big points because you grab an opportunity.

“We have seen a trend at a lot of races this year that we have a stronger race car than a qualifying car at the moment and that some others struggle on Sundays, but you never know who has found what from one weekend to the next.

“It is simply important to, as we always do, focus on ourselves, try to extract the maximum we have from the package on Saturdays and Sundays together with our drivers and then I think we are hopefully in a good position to keep this battle up against a very strong Ferrari team.”

McLaren hopes for more Ferrari struggles

Ferrari's difficult Sunday at the French Grand Prix was an exaggeration of recent weeks with Charles Leclerc securing pole at each of the two preceding races in Monaco and Azerbaijan only to fall back in the race.

With a smile on his face, Seidl commented: “We obviously would hope they struggle more often going forward!

"But at the same time, we are not underestimating the ability of Ferrari also to get on top of this issue.

"I think there is a bit of a trend if you look at these first races so far this season, that we seem to have more difficulties to extract the one-lap performance on Saturdays but then have usually a more competitive race performance which then leads you to a result as we have seen in Paul Ricard on tracks where you can actually overtake.

“But we also have seen the races this year where we might have had also this good race performance on Sunday but with being stuck in traffic and not being able to overtake you actually can’t use it. So we simply have to focus on ourselves."