McLaren started the season far off the pace they had hoped for in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with both of its drivers, Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, unable to progress to the final round of Q3 in qualifying.
In Melbourne, the team’s performance improved as both drivers qualified in the top 10, then managed to hold onto that place throughout the race to pick up a nice haul of points. In total, it was the 18 who added a fifth and sixth position, which made them climb to the fourth step in constructors.
After the Australian event, the team’s top manager, Andreas Seidl , said that the Woking team had a “clear plan” to solve the deficit with respect to the leading teams, but urged them to be patient, since the recovery would not be done in the overnight, and that Albert Park was a good fit for the MCL36.
“It was important, after realizing that we were lacking in performance, that we do an analysis as quickly as possible to find out how we can improve as soon as possible,” he said.
“I am very happy to say that we now have a clear plan,” continued Seidl. “What we have to do with the car is to take steps in terms of performance, it will take a bit of time, so we have to be patient, despite the ambition, but the important thing is that we have a clear plan that we are going to execute.
The recovery process for the teams that have not reached the level they expected in 2022 is not being easy due to the budget limit and the control of the hours in the wind tunnel , which means that it will be necessary to carefully consider when the new updates and know in which areas they will earn the most.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail about the exact moment this happens,” he said. “There are different parameters that you have to manage, a cost limit to take into account and limited time in the wind tunnel, so you have to combine everything.”
Although the McLaren team boss declined to explain the MCL36 ‘s shortcomings, he admitted the lack of high-speed corners and heavy braking zones in Melbourne helped McLaren outperform rivals in the mid-range.
“It’s for three reasons,” Seidl said. “The track layout suits our car, with a flowing layout, and we’ve been able to apply what we learned about the car in Jeddah, that put us in a competitive place, not just in one lap, but in the race as well.”
“It’s a great motivation for everyone in the team to keep working hard, because we are now in a position where we upgrade the car to fight for top 10 results,” explained the engineer.
“It’s a step up from where we started the season, but it’s not where we want to be as a team. Head down, let’s not get too excited and keep working hard,” Seidl concluded.
