“Sometimes it’s good to have a break” – McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl feels the summer break has helped Daniel Ricciardo recharge his batteries and get back to his best.
Daniel Ricciardo had a sluggish start to his McLaren career this season, trailing teammate Lando Norris by quite a margin. But all that struggle is a thing of the past now, with Ricciardo back to his best, winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
This has delighted his McLaren boss Andreas Seidl, who feels Ricciardo’s struggles are not very different from what everyone goes through. He is delighted the Aussie got the summer back and has come back fully fresh and energised.
“I think it’s probably no different to anyone. Sometimes it’s good to have a break and have a bit of a distance maybe as well, after a very intense period for him that he was putting in a lot of energy together with the team and the results didn’t come
“Maybe he needed that break to step away a bit, reflect and then come back and apply everything we worked through the first half of the season.
“It seemed to work from the first outing onwards at Spa and worked out over the course of the triple-header even if it wasn’t that visible in Zandvoort because we seemed to struggle overall with the performance of the car.
“It’s very important, obviously, for us and for Daniel to see that he feels a lot more comfortable with the car now,” continued Seidl. “Since he came back from the summer break, he was a lot more comfortable.
“It’s a great for him, a great boost for his morale as well and for his crew. It’s very important for us as a team because we need two guys up there for our battle with Ferrari.”
