Andres Seidl has huge praise for Carlos Sainz and his inputs which he reckons has helped McLaren to improve well during the 2019 F1 season.
Following a disastrous last few F1 seasons, McLaren as a whole have excelled in 2019, jumping up several positions in the constructor’s championship to be fourth with a race to spare. Leading the charge at the team has been Sainz alongside rookie Lando Norris.
Sainz has had a consistent run in 2019 with some good results for the team, including their first podium since 2014 and his own career first in Brazil GP. McLaren team boss Seidl has heaped praise on the Spanish youngster as he pointed out experience as one big factor.
Having been part of the Red Bull programme and raced for Toro Rosso and then driving for Renault in 2018, Seidl reckons it only helped Sainz in the transition to McLaren and also play an important role within the team, in their progress.
Seidl also praised the team bond, especially between Sainz and Norris, which has eventually helped the team with good results. “Carlos with his experience was obviously very important in order to guide the development of the car also,” said Seidl.
“I mean you could see straight away from the first test onwards that he has some experience already, working with other teams, other engineering teams and so on, and delivering Saturday-Sundays.”
“At the same time with Lando, who was unlucky with many technical failures when he was in good positions, the same, by having a strong teammate, two teammates that are on a very good high level is obviously the best thing you can have in a team.
“They push each other, they push together the team and the engineers to make sure we never stand still, we never rest, and also that we don’t get carried away by the positive step we could make for this year.
“Again hopefully we can give them the machine at some point that they can fight higher up and then they can grow with us and hopefully show that they are top drivers.” Despite getting fourth locked up in Brazil, Seidl says work will continue in Abu Dhabi too.
“The team as a whole will also be fighting hard in Abu Dhabi, despite securing fourth place in the penultimate round,” said Seidl. “In F1 you never you never approach a weekend in a relaxed way. It’s important for the team to keep focus on Abu Dhabi.
“We’re still going to have to score out there, which is the best way to finish your season and best motivation to prepare for next year’s season. The team back home is flat out with next year’s car already both on engineering and also in production side.
Here’s what Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris said after Brazil GP
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This story was written by Duncan Leahy and edited by Darshan Chokhani