“The objective is to be like Daniel has driven a McLaren”- Andreas Seidl wants McLaren veteran in Daniel Ricciardo from day 1

“The objective is to be like Daniel has driven a McLaren”- Andreas Seidl wants a McLaren veteran out of Daniel Ricciardo to make an impact.

Andreas Seidl has been looking forward to partnering with Daniel Ricciardo in 2021, but considering this year has spoiled every team’s usual modus operandi, there is less time for Ricciardo to settle at McLaren.

Hence, team principal Seidl needs his new Australian employee to be a “veteran” in McLaren from the initial days at work to make any significant impact in 2021.

“Having a new driver on board is always an exciting challenge,” said Seidl as per the Race.com. “It’s a combination of a very methodical approach and competence because I’m sure the engineers will be eager to share with the driver tonnes and tonnes of information and solutions, but you need to do the right things.”

“There won’t be a lot of time to test on the track, less than any other time, which increases the challenge. The objective is to be like Daniel has driven a McLaren and has worked with his engineers a long time, but it’s actually the first race. From there, just work backwards.”

Daniel Ricciardo will be investing a lot of time

Speaking on Ricciardo’s preparation with his new team, Seidl has confirmed that the Aussie will be spending a lot of his time in the factory, as well as capitalising on electronic communication given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have a clear plan in place of how to integrate him in the best possible way,” said Seidl. “The main focus is on integration on the technical side, on the racing side.”

“But in parallel to that, we have as a programme in place to integrate him as a team member on the communication side, the marketing side and the business side. That will start flat out from the beginning of January.

“There’s not a lot of time. It will involve a lot of sessions, both online, but at the same time also with a lot of presence at the MTC. The target is to make sure he feels at home with us as quickly as possible, then looking forward to performing together from the first race onwards.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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