“Ferrari are coming in very strong on us”: McLaren boss says that the team will be happy with a fourth place finish in the Constructor’s Championship this season

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl admits that his team would be satisfied with a 4th place finish in the Championship in 2021. 

McLaren’s season has been a story of two contrasting halves. They had a solid start to 2021 and looked like favourites to finish behind Mercedes and Red Bull. However, Ferrari has caught up to the British team, and as of now, they are 39.5 points ahead of the latter.

The team from Surrey have had a woeful few weeks leading up to the Saudi Arabian GP. They have scored just 4 points in the last three races in Mexico, Brazil and Qatar.

Andreas Seidl insists that they will try to get the P3 spot back in the remaining two rounds but admits it’s unrealistic. He added that the Woking-based outfit would be happy with 4th.

“We will give it still all the next two races in order to score as many points as possible. We’ll see if there is something happening.” said Seidl.

“At the same time, I think if we score fourth this year, I’m happy to be honest. Ferrari are simply coming back strong which was to be expected from a team like Ferrari.”

Also read: Lewis Hamilton admits he is not comfortable with racing in Saudi Arabia ahead of the country’s inaugural Grand Prix this weekend

The team has fallen off in the second half of the season, says the McLaren chief

Everything seemed to be going well for McLaren until September. They earned a 1-2 finish (their first since 2010) at Ferrari’s home race in Monza. However, since then, neither Daniel Ricciardo nor Lando Norris has lived up to expectations.

Norris led most of the Russian GP later that month, but a strategy goof up on his part cost him his maiden F1 win. They held their lead over Ferrari until the Mexican GP, where they surrendered their position to the Maranello based team.

Also read: Lando Norris expects brutal competition with Russell, Albon, and Leclerc next season

“I think we maximized our points in the first half of the season due to some issues also on the Ferrari side, on the operations side, and we lost more than 30 points in the last three races.” said Seidl.

“These are the steps I want to see and I have to see within the team,” he added. “Because it just confirms that the plan we have put in place is going in the right direction.”