McLaren’s new Formula 1 boss says he will encourage the team to take more risks in its bid to reduce its deficit to the championship’s leading teams.
McLaren has undergone extensive restructuring in recent years, with the newest high-profile recruit being the appointment of ex-Porsche boss Andreas Seidl as Team Principal.
Seidl’s squad has recently enjoyed an upturn in performance on-track, with an upgrade package introduced in Spain improving the pace of MCL34 through medium- and high-speed corners.
McLaren led the midfield group in both France and Austria, and now holds a 20-point advantage over Renault in the fight for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Seidl believes that McLaren must be “brave enough” to adopt more experimental approaches with its car design moving forward, in parallel to making improvements elsewhere.
“The most important thing for me is to have continuous development, to see continuous improvement as a team back home, and out here [inside the race team],” said Seidl.
“I mean it’s important that we also take our time to make sure we go into detail in terms of the methods, tools and everything we are using to develop this stuff.
“That’s the foundation in the end for an aggressive development which is required, especially when you have a gap like we have. You need to build up this confidence again inside the team.
“But also [you need to be] brave enough to take, let’s say, risky or adventurous concept decisions.
“That’s something that other teams with a lot of experience and confidence, like Mercedes, can do.
“It’s important to also, let’s say, to be in categories like pits stops, race strategy showing already now that we can take the fight with the big ones, because it’s clear that that’s had a gap on the performance side and that’s something that will take time.”
Seidl stressed that McLaren needs to stay “realistic” with its ambitions but has been encouraged by the potential he has seen at the team since he took up his new position.
“I’m still the rookie of the team, still learning,” said Seidl.
“Of course, I try to do my, give my contribution to bring in the experience I made in the past.
“I’m very positive that we can make the next steps. We are still, as I said many times, for sure not lifting the full potential which is there. So that’s my mission I’m on at the moment.
“I’m still working out where are the weaknesses, how do we want to put up the organisation for the future, which are the deficits we have on the infrastructure side also?
“There’s no magic. It will take time. Just important to make the next step also with next year’s car which we started now a lot earlier again, compared to this year’s car. So, yeah, quite positive. At the same time need to stay realistic as well.”
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