Carlos Sainz Jr. labelled McLaren’s Mexican Grand Prix slump “a big surprise” as he suffered his worst race since China, with the team failing to score.
Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris secured the fourth row of the grid and leapt up to fourth and sixth respectively on a scrappy opening lap.
But after switching to the Hard tyres Sainz Jr. struggled for performance and ultimately regressed, coming home 13th after a second stop for Mediums.
“It was a big surprise as we’ve been very strong all weekend and we have been very, very, very on it all the way,” he said.
“We had a chance [at the start] that we got to fight with the top guys, and we did it.
“We had good tyre management with the Softs, longer than anyone else, but on the Hards we had no grip, I hope it’s a one-off
“We were just sliding around on a Hard tyre being very slow, being overtaken, losing grip, and a snowball effect that meant we went backwards and had to pit again.”
McLaren’s lacklustre day was compounded by Norris dropping to the rear of the field due to a loose wheel at his first pit stop. He eventually retired.
“Going away from here, I think we can be lucky that we didn’t lose any more points in the constructors’ championship because the top six cars finished and points behind were well distributed between teams,” said team boss Andreas Seidl.
“A day like this is part of the process for our team to become a better team.
“We have lots of opportunities to learn from [the race] and it was a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do to become a better team.”
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