Ricciardo and Norris extracted "everything possible" in Australian GP

Ewan Gale
Monday 11 April 2022 09:30 - Updated: 15:52

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl believes Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo extracted "everything possible" from the MCL36 at the Australian Grand Prix.

The team-mates finished fifth and sixth to collect 18 points and promote McLaren to fourth in F1's constructors' standings, finishing behind only Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

The result marks a turnaround for the Woking-based team after only a single points finish from a possible four in the opening two rounds of the season.

Asked if Norris and Ricciardo running nose-to-tail throughout the race at Albert Park proved the car was running at its potential, Seidl replied: "Yeah, I would say so.

"Obviously, with these cars being brand new, the tyres being a bit of a different specification compared to the past, there is still a lot you need to learn in terms of what you can do with these tyres over the race distance.

"Doing these long stints on the hard tyres - actually both tyres - was also not easy to guess how much tyre management you had to do.

"So there was always a bit of management as well but I would say both cars, Lando and Daniel, had pretty much the same performance.

"I think they, in the end, extracted everything that was possible to extract from our car and also very happy with that."

Mercedes more competitive in race-trim - Seidl

Norris qualified fourth on the grid but was overhauled by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at turn one.

Both McLarens stalked the Mercedes duo in the early stages before quickly falling into a race of their own.

"We need to acknowledge that Mercedes was, again on a Sunday and similar to what we have also seen in the first two races, definitely more competitive than what they can show in qualifying," explained Seidl.

"It is a matter of fact that we didn't have the pace to battle them.

"It was just good to see that we are definitely quicker than the Alpines, Alfa Romeo and the Haas cars which were obviously faster than us at previous events."

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