This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will mark the first at which Andreas Seidl occupies the role of McLaren Team Principal at a race weekend.
McLaren revealed in January that it had appointed Seidl as its new team boss but that he would not take up his position until May, owing to his previous contract with Porsche, though he visited the team in the paddock in Bahrain.
McLaren has enjoyed an encouraging start to its 2019 campaign with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris both scoring in Azerbaijan, a result that lifted the team to fourth in the standings.
“I’m delighted to have now started at McLaren and I’ve had a really warm welcome from everyone in the team,” said Seidl, whose previous Formula 1 experience came with BMW in the late 2000s.
“During my first few days I’ve been speaking to as many people around the factory as possible and this will continue over coming weeks as I get to know the team.
“In Spain we’ll look to build on the performance shown in the first few races, however we know the field is extremely tightly-packed.
“The start of the European season is traditionally where teams bring upgrades, so it’s hard to say where the grid will line up this weekend, but we will continue to focus on developing our package and improve the car in key areas.
“As always, the objective during the weekend will be on ensuring strategy, operations and reliability are as strong as they can be.”
Seidl is the second major signing to join McLaren during the early stages of 2019 in the wake of James Key taking up his position as Technical Director.
Key was signed from Toro Rosso mid-2018 but only started working for McLaren at the Bahrain Grand Prix this year due to the length of his gardening leave.
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